After The Storm
by lucifael75
Summary: After the Storm is it time for the Calm?  Or is it a different type of storm that is coming for Harry.  A new life, a new continent and a whole host of possibilities is in store for our hero.  Sorry for the delay in posting
1. Chapter 1

**TITLE**: After the Storm

**AUTHOR**: Lucifael

**WEBSITE**: . (_luwriting dot co dot uk)_

**DISTRIBUTION**: FFNET, LuWriting

**DISCLAIMER**: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**SUMMARY**: After the Storm is it time for the Calm? Or is it a different type of storm that is coming for Harry. A new life, a new continent and a whole host of possibilities is in store for our hero.

**FEEDBACK**: Read, Review and Rate please it is the life's blood of fan fiction and helps me to improve.

**CATEGORY**: Action/Adventure/Crossover

**RELATIONSHIPS**: H/? (No Slash)

**RATING**: M (FR18)

**SPOILERS**: For Season 4 and more of Smallville, but quickly becomes AU. Set after Gone, so Clark and Jonathan are both back at home.

**WARNINGS**: Not HBP Compliant, Powerful Harry.

**BETA**: Drake the Archr, OdinMage

**AUTHORS NOTES**:

This story is inspired by another, very good HP Crossover with Smallville called "_Harry Potter and the Ascension of Ra_" which is available on FFNET. It doesn't go the same way but I won't lie there are similarities here. It really get's different later on as there isn't much different you can do about going somewhere and setting up a home lol.

That said I would like to think my story stands alone despite the similarities it is its own story.

This is my first attempt at a proper Smallville cross so that should be interesting, lol. I hope I do it justice.

I'm not sure on a ship for the story yet, though obviously some of the canon ones will be in there.

Harry Potter is AU from fifth year onwards and is described briefly in the introduction of Chapter One.

BTW just because I bill this as a Smallville crossover that doesn't mean that's the only crossover I'll include. At this point it could go in any direction; I don't really do a lot of planning ahead.

**After The Storm**

**Chapter One – Moving**

_New York_

Harry Potter stood amongst the towering skyscrapers of New York City his eyes closed while the seething masses of humanity passed on all sides. He was so dizzy at that moment in time it was almost enough to make him sick. Every day since the end of his fifth year at Hogwarts had seemed to go by in a flash. Ever since the day that Dumbledore had made an abrupt 180 in his decision to send Harry back to the Dursley's after Sirius had died. From that day forth Harry had known no peace at all in his life be it personally or scholastically.

Apparently the aged man had been collecting special training memories for Harry. The Professor had collected them from a variety of sources, ready for the day that he decided Harry was old enough. Something about Harry's reaction to the Prophesy had obviously made that decision for the Headmaster and he had put his plans in motion.

It was good in a way, for Harry had been wondering if the man had wanted Harry to fail. It was good to find out that he had a plan all along to get Harry up to speed.

There had been a problem though; merging that many memories and the associated skills into his system had also merged the fragment of Voldemort into his own brain at the same time. There had been a short battle that Harry had eventually won, but not without some cost to himself in terms of mental scarring.

The upside was that he knew a lot of what Voldemort had known when he had created the scar on Harry's forehead and that was now a part of Harry. It gave him insight into the man that no one else had, not even the headmaster and it had been what had eventually won the day during their final epic duel to the death.

That had come during his final year when he was testing out on all his NEWT's due to all the memories he had imbibed. The Dark Lord and most of his followers had attacked first Hogsmeade and then the school itself. Having planned for that with the Headmaster the staff of the school got the students to safety and triggered the schools defences, both old and new. Being that it was a thousand year old school that had been attacked many times in its history the defences were impressive and cut the number they had to fight significantly.

As always happened during these occasions people were lost on both sides until finally it came down to Harry and Voldemort.

The fight was still as clear as day in Harry's mind but it was not something he liked to dwell on if he could help it. They had inflicted grievous wounds on each other before Harry had laid the killing stroke on the snake like wizard. The memory of the backlash of magic that had occurred at that point would still wake Harry up of an evening.

By far the worst part of it all, other than losing some of the best educators in the business, had been the frenzy that had occurred afterwards.

This had led directly to why Harry was standing in New York when he could be at any number of functions at that moment in time. He had actually been hounded out of the country by the press and well wishers and the Minister of Magic himself of course. He was now one of the most powerful and skilled wizards of his age, and perhaps a few others, and yet he had to run from his home country because they just wouldn't leave him alone.

He had weathered through the first few months of it, of course he had, but in the end it was agreed with his best friends and advisors, which included a now recovering Professor Dumbledore that it might be a good idea if he slipped from the public eye for a while.

To that end and since he was now 17 he had gone to Gringotts and claimed all that he was due with an end of line spell and the reading of both Sirius' and his parents Wills. It turned out that he was due rather a lot and he had taken it all from the goblins hands, much to their displeasure, and then converted it to Muggle currency, dollars to be precise. America was one of the most modern and forward thinking magical communities in the world as well as being the largest, but even then it had been decided that it might be best if he lived as a Muggle, or mundane as they were known in the US, for a while.

He was rich enough that he would never worry about money and setting himself up in the country was easy with Albus', as he now insisted Harry call him, help. Through the ICW and their connections he had been granted citizenship in the 'US of A' and, with the judicious use of a map and a dart, he had picked a location to live in. Buying a house there had been almost worryingly easy due to the low prices in the area even though it was relatively close to a large city in Kansas. The town he had chosen to live in was small by American standards and was apparently well known for a meteor shower that had happened back in the 80's. Other than that nothing seemed too out of the ordinary and Harry was hoping it would be a nice place to live. Due to his young age he had been enrolled in the Muggle school there, a Highschool, and had been given some special training to make up for the schooling he had missed from age 11 and the differences in subjects.

He was in New York to finish up a few business related things and had a man Dumbledore trusted, an old friend that had expatriated from the motherland, to help Harry look after his finances and such. The man was called Walter Cummings and he ran a few moderately successful businesses in the Muggle world due to being a Squib. He had moved to the USA during the last war but had been an operative for the Order of the Phoenix during his time in England and had Dumbledore's utmost trust. This was just as well considering the fortune that he was looking after for Harry.

A few minor things had also been done to help keep Harry's identity secret as well. Thanks to Walter Cummings he had recently undergone plastic surgery to cover up his scar somewhat. Without Voldemort around it was just a scar now and had been thinned out to a remarkable degree. His name was now Black in homage to his Godfather but his given name was still Harry. Apparently it was better to stick to the same first name with this sort of thing so you actually registered it properly. If he had changed it to James, for instance, and someone called it he probably wouldn't turn around. But if they called Harry, he likely would. So in the end he was Harry Black, age 17, very nearly 18, from London, England expatriated to Smallville, Kansas. London had been chosen since the accent wasn't too different from his own and was far enough away from Surrey that with the name change he had some secrecy for his original identity. His cover story had been put together meticulously, keeping as many details as close to the truth as possible while making sure it wouldn't be linked to his prior self. He had all sorts of documentation to prove he was who he said he was, as well as histories of a medical and educational type as well.

In short he was ready to slip into a new life. The only trouble was that he was already missing his old one. Not the fame, or the fighting but the simple times up in the common room with his peers as they talked, had fun and even did home work. He missed Ron and Hermione and wondered how they would get along without him there to play buffer for their often times annoying, but fun, arguments. He was going to miss his other friends as well, like the members of the DA. Luna for all her other worldliness was a treasure to have as a friend. Neville despite being so shy was coming on leaps and bounds in his personal confidence and there were plenty of others as well that he was going to miss.

He was in a strange country 4,000 miles away from his old one with no friends around him and the constant threat of being found out on his shoulders. Luckily his property was out in the sticks a little, having recently been emptied out and was ready for him. It meant that he could practice a little magic there without the likelihood of being caught. After everything else, going without magic totally would be a killer he was sure. So in a way he was glad he didn't need to worry about that.

He was also a skilled manipulator of magic these days thanks to the 'lessons' from various people that Albus had been picking up for him in the last decade. So making his house a home was likely to be fairly easy. He still had a few things he needed to buy, including some specially protected computer equipment. Apparently the schools in America preferred to have their assignments in printed form which blew Harry away as he had never even touched a computer before his training. Luckily that had been part of his acclimation training but he was still no Bill Gates.

Other specialty equipment was required to make his house look like any other Muggle home while being protected from the amount of magic he habitually put out around him, not just him but any Wizard, though apparently his was unusually high of late.

His eyes snapped open and hand flashed into action as he felt a hand slip into his back pocket. He grabbed it and twisted. Some of the special lessons he had picked up were of the physical kind and due to the way he had been taught were instantly in his cerebral cortex. Thus he reacted on instinct and caught the pick pocket without a care in the world and had him face down on the ground in an instant. He lazily regained his wallet, which had all his ID and cards in it as well as a large chunk of dollars, checked it while holding the man with one hand and then let go. "I'd be more careful in future if I were you," Harry said his tone dangerous.

The man looked at him in shock at being taken out by such a slender looking guy and backed off into the crowd without taking his eyes of Harry. He was obviously expecting Harry to attack him again or something.

Harry paid him no mind, instead glancing at the Rolex on his wrist and noting the time. He had a meeting in a few short minutes and he had been so caught up in his thoughts that he was going to be late if he didn't get a move on. He went with the flow of humanity and made his way quickly towards his goal.

_Intellitech Incorporated, Day_

"Welcome Mr. Black," a pretty receptionist said as Harry walked through the door to the offices of Intellitech Incorporated.

"Urm – hi," he said surprised she remembered him. He pushed a hand through his black hair and looked around, "I'm here for an appointment with Walter Cummings."

"Yes sir, if you'd like to take a seat I'll call him."

"Thanks," Harry replied and sat down on one of the plush leather seats just across from the reception desk.

A few minutes later a positive bear of a man walked into the room and shot Harry a large smile. He was probably Harry's parents age had they survived and apparently had known them. He was a good 6' 4" and had black hair, a beaming smile and looked more like a fighter than a successful business man. It was a look that had served him well as people tended to under estimate him in business which was to their peril as Walter Cummings was as sharp as a tack and twice as bright, "Harry – good to see you, if you'd follow me to my office."

Harry nodded a polite hello to the exuberant man and followed him into the elevator and up several floors to the man's large office. They entered it with a nod to the assistant that sat outside and then closed the doors behind them.

Walter waved Harry into a chair and grabbed himself a drink while offering Harry a Coke, which he took. "So Harry is everything to your satisfaction so far," Walter asked.

"More than," Harry said smiling slightly, "I can't thank you enough for all that you've done for me."

"Nothing is too much for a friend of Albus' or your parents either," Walter told him seriously. "If not for Albus in particular I wouldn't be where I am now. So tell me is there anything else I can do for you?"

"I don't know at the moment sir," Harry said respectfully.

"What's this sir business," Walter said reproachfully, "Didn't I tell you to call me Walter or Walt if you prefer."

"Okay urh – Walt, I don't know at the moment what else can be done. I might have some questions later on though."

"Well, I'll be moving back to the main headquarters of the company so I'll be in Metropolis, close to you. I'm setting up an Apparition point for you, I understand you're pretty good at it, so when it's up and running I'll send you the co-ordinates. That way anytime you want to talk and I'm there we can."

"Thank you –urh- Walt that would be brilliant."

"Now there are a few last minute things that you need to sign, paper work is the bane of my existence, and then you're all done. How are you travelling to Kansas, you can fly down with me if you're willing to wait a few days."

"Fly, that'd be cool," Harry said. He had taken an international Port Key to get to the US so he had never been in an aeroplane before.

"I have a private jet waiting for me to finish a few details, so meet me here in two days and we'll travel down. I'll arrange for your gear to be delivered by truck the afternoon you arrive. That way anyone looking will see nothing untoward. There is after all a farm next door to you, not exactly within sight but close enough that seeing a few trucks going in will assure them someone is moving in. If you just appeared with a house full of furniture without them it might raise a few questions." Walter smirked, "Though I understand from Albus you are rather good with the Obliviate spell."

"He trained me in that sort of thing himself, so I suppose he'd know," Harry said with a slight smile. His skill with the mind arts was second to none; only Dumbledore had more experience, which set him ahead, but his Legilimency and Occlumency were top flight now and as he had been warned it was difficult not to go rifling through peoples heads. As it was he always had a sense of whether or not someone was lying to him whenever he made the slightest eye contact and with the smallest push he could read more details. Luckily Walt didn't seem put off at all by that knowledge and was bravely meeting Harry's eyes at that point. With the laser surgery that Harry had also undergone his emerald regard was no longer partially hidden from the world by a thin sheet of glass which apparently, according to the female doctor that had done his eyes, had quite an effect. The sheer power he tended to exude helped in that regard as well, not that Harry was fully aware of that fact as of yet.

"Now, get to signing," Walt said handing over a stack of paper work, "and then go have some fun for a couple of days."

_Smallville, Kansas – Two Days Later_

Harry walked in through the front door of his new home feeling something akin to elation. He owned several properties in the Wizarding world in the UK, or had before he had liquidated all but one of them. That said he hadn't felt like he had owned any of them. This was the first time, in his opinion, that he had owned a home that was all his to do with as he saw fit. It was exciting and a little scary at the same time. While he was alone, he was now in charge of his own destiny for a change and that was _very_ exciting to him. Ever since that fateful day when he had found out about the prophesy he had been directed by fate more than anything else and that was not something he had enjoyed at all. Then when he had beaten Voldemort he had finally been bumped from pillar to post with all the fake congratulations and the like from the Ministry and other people wanting to use him for his fame or fortune.

For the first time in years he suddenly felt in control. Oh he had people looking out for his interests still with Walt doing the leg work on that sort of thing but he knew through some passive and not so passive scanning that Walt was out to make his life as easy as possible not run it for him. Harry knew that all he had to do was ask, and Walt would warn him of any issues, but would still do what Harry wanted if Harry insisted. That was something you couldn't buy in normal circumstances and Harry felt very happy to have lucked into Walt in that regard. The fact that Harry had made sure to buy stock in the man's company also helped. It tied their destinies together in some ways and made sure that Walt would work to both their benefits. At first Walt had not been happy at Harry holding so much stock in the company until Harry had signed over his votes, said, 'make me money' and left it at that. Walt now had a vested interest in making sure Harry's interests were taken into account and Harry was Slytherin enough to want to make sure of that fact.

He slipped the key to the house in his pants pocket and pulled out a packet of documents from his inside jacket pocket. Then he took off the jacket and hung it on the door handle. The house was currently utterly empty other than a few white goods that would have to go anyway due to Harry's magical field. He could hear the Taxi that had brought him from Metropolis to the house starting up and leaving as he half turned and watched it. Then he refocused on the documents in his hand. These documents made him the owner of the house, not by mortgage but by single outright ownership.

Being rich had its small benefits after all and Harry was not against using them now that he had time to plan for the future. He and probably his children's children would never need to work, that wasn't to say that Harry didn't have to find something to do with himself though. Having several ancient lines end with him had made sure that Harry was exceedingly rich and the conversion rate to Muggle money was almost insane, but then what Wizard normally used that. Using the exchange rate alone would normally be enough to make someone rich if they played it correctly. Of course the charges had been nasty but then what did you expect with goblins involved. Harry had quickly found out they were less than trust worthy with anything other than jealously guarding their vaults as if the gold in them was their own. Removing his massive fortune from their hands had probably made the entire nation his enemy for life.

Not that Harry was planning on returning to the Wizarding world as his self anyway. The plan was that he would lie low for as long as it took for the excitement to die down and then reenter as his Harry Black persona if he still wanted to by then. Despite already missing his friends Harry wasn't sure that was ever going to happen.

With a lazy wave of his hand he flipped on all the lights in the place, a small display of the sort of wandless control he had over his magic, and then walked into the room proper. Basically it was a nice large five bedroom house with plenty of space and even some basement area that Harry planned on making use of with some judicious space enhancing runes. Despite never taking Arithmancy or Runes he had a solid grounding to an advanced stage in both thanks to Albus Dumbledore.

Luckily Harry had control over his magic now to the point where he could pull off a trick like turning on the lights without blowing the electricity, but it took concentration. The specially protected electrical goods on their way to him were really more of a precaution than anything else, but they were worth having – just in case, especially since he intended to ward his house up the wazzo and back. He might feel that he was safe there but that didn't mean he wasn't going to be careful anyway.

With that in mind he reached into his pocket and pulled out a penknife. It was only a makeshift way of doing things but it would be more than enough until he got some proper ward stones.

He then spent the next two hours scratching runes into special places around the house and then sinking into the basement to find a good solid base for the ward matrix to be based. His luck held and he found some good foundation stones for his ward scheme and set the Ward in place just before there was a knock on his door.

Cleaning himself off he walked up the stairs from the cool basement and to his, _his_, front door. There was a man there in a uniform and cap peering through the door at Harry.

"Harry Black," the man asked as Harry opened the door and smiled in greeting.

"That's me," Harry said.

"Oh you're a Brit," the man said with a pleased smile like Harry was the first British person he had met, "Sorry, right; we have three trucks for delivery in your name."

"Excellent, where do I sign," Harry asked eagerly.

"Just here sir," The man said passing over an electronic device.

Making sure he was holding on to his magic to the best of his ability Harry signed his John Hancock on the small display and then the man waved behind him.

It was a full service delivery so under Harry's almost excited guidance the four-man strong team of movers put everything where Harry wanted it over the next half hour and then left.

Harry spun around taking in his living room, seeing the couches laid out in place with the electronic goods and the rest of _his_ new gear in position, and smiled. He needed to do a little tinkering with everything but he was pretty much set up, the delivery men had been pro's and had put mostly everything where he wanted it.

Then he frowned, he knew he had forgotten something, his stomach complained that it too knew he had forgotten something and Harry let out a sigh. It wasn't the first time he would have to go hungry but he had hoped those days were over, at least this time it was his fault not his Uncles or Aunts.

Walking up stairs to go to bed as it was now quite late, Harry entered his bedroom and realized something else a little stupid as well. He had no linens in the house with which to make his bed either.

"Bugger," he mumbled as he lay down and let his eyes close.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two – Dinner**

**Smallville, Kansas – Day**

Harry was awoken by the sound of crowing from the farm next door early the next day and winced at the light streaming through his window. He glanced at his Rolex, his one big personal purchase, and winced again. This living in the country thing was going to take some getting used to. Cockerels didn't crow in Hogwarts and they would've been shot in Surrey so waking up to the strange noise was not something that Harry had anticipated.

With a sigh he got out of bed, which just meant rolling off it, and stood up. He was still dressed from the night before as he had gone to bed clothed, so he grabbed his wash kit and went to the en-suite bathroom for a quick but functional shower and shave. Walking out of the bathroom twenty minutes later he quickly got dressed in some fresh clothing and wondered what he was going to do with himself.

The first order of business was obviously to get some food in the house and he suspected that he would be able to pick up some linen for his bedroom and spares as well in the town, or he hoped he could. If not he would have to try to get to Metropolis in the near future and get some then.

Of course, he had another problem as well. How exactly did he get into town? He rolled his eyes at himself and walked down into his kitchen where he had left his mobile phone. Hitting speed dial one, he waited for a moment until a sleepy voice answered the line.

"Hello," Walt said his tone tired.

"Oh shit, sorry Walt I just realised what time it is," Harry said slapping himself in the forehead.

"Harry? What are you doing calling at this time in the morning," Walt asked sounding groggy.

"I'm so sorry, I got up with the damn Cockerel this morning, and whose idea was it to live next to a farm again?"

There was a sleepy chuckle on the other end of the line and then, "What's up Harry I'm awake now so you might as well tell me."

"I'm so sorry Walt, I won't do it again. It's not an emergency, but I have a couple of problems."

"Go on; nothing serious I hope."

"One is a little serious given how far out I am from town, the other not so much if I can solve the first."

"It's too early for riddles Harry, just spill it and if I can sort it out I will."

"I need a car Walt, like really – really, need a car."

"Oh shit, we kind of forgot that," Walt asked sounding more alert.

"I have to be at least twenty miles out of town right now so I'm a little lost as to what to do, I don't even know of a local taxi company."

"Do you care what sort of car," Walt asked with accompanying rustling noises. He was obviously getting out of bed.

"Something nice, I can drive thanks to the training I got but I don't know a lot about cars."

"Something nice, I can deal with that and if I pay them enough I think I can get it delivered to you later today will that help."

"That would be brilliant Walt thanks. I'm starving here," Harry admitted.

"Starving – oh shit we didn't get you food?" Walt said sounding amused.

"Or anything to put on my bed either, no towels other than my wash kit one and a few other silly things I forgot."

"Not just you Harry, worry not I will sort this out for you," Walt told him sounding amused but honest with it.

"I'm sorry to wake you though Walt I really didn't think, for that I'm dead sorry."

"It's alright Harry I would have gotten up in… an hour anyway."

"Shit sorry mate," Harry said sympathetically.

Walt laughed, "I said don't worry Harry, especially while you're settling in I'm here whenever you need me – okay?"

"Thanks Walt, that means a lot to me."

"Right now I'll pick out something car wise for you and have it delivered – I'll ring when it's on its way then you can go into that tiny town of yours and get something to eat."

"That would be really good, I've not eaten for – two days," Harry noted.

"Why on earth not," Walt asked with a sigh.

"I forgot; and everything in New York was such a rush I just didn't think to eat."

"Right well, I'll get everything sorted – it's a two hour drive to Smallville from Metropolis so as soon as something opens I'll sort something out. You can pay me back later okay," Walt told him with a fond sounding voice.

"You know I will," Harry said seriously.

"I was kidding Harry – we're partners now in effect, so helping you out with a car is no big deal – just don't expect a Rolls Royce."

"I think that would stand out a little too much here, and when I said nice I didn't mean THAT nice."

Walt laughed, "Goodbye Harry I'll call later."

"Right, now I just need to find something to do."

Walt laughed again and disconnected leaving Harry wondering what the hell to do, it was Thursday and he didn't have to start classes until Monday having caught them in their summer holiday, or was that break now he was in America?

With a sigh he put his phone in his jeans pocket and looked around. Luckily the electricity was on so his TV would be working and watching the box wasn't something he had ever really done before. He even had a large selection of the year's releases of DVD's to watch as well, all of which were new to him. So, all told, he figured he could waste some time. He walked to his most comfortable looking chair and layered some comfort charms on it to improve it before taking a seat and clicking on the TV.

**Four Hours Later**

Feeling more than a little square eyed Harry was roused from his close watching of a cartoon by a knock at his door. The sound nearly made him fall out of his chair. Watching TV was unlike anything he had experienced before. He had seen them before of course, but not a top of the range flat screen with surround sound. It was quite different from catching a glance while he was doing chores. It was immersive and quite scarily he had passed the last few hours without even realizing it.

He went to his door and saw a smart looking young man with a clipboard, "Harry Black," he asked.

"That's me," Harry said for the second time in as many days.

"I am here to make delivery of your brand new car, we at Metropolis Motors hope that you enjoy your new driving experience." The man said by rote and handed Harry the clipboard to sign.

In a daze Harry did so and then the man stepped back with a flourish and showed Harry what Walt had selected for him.

"Merlin," Harry breathed then berated himself.

"This is your brand new Porsche Boxster 2.7 Convertible 2d 2687cc Tiptronic S. Your documents are in the Glove box and it has a full tank of gas, filled up in town ready for you to drive." The man said with a friendly smile at the look on Harry's face. Harry, though young, was not the youngest customer he had served, but he looked astounded which was unusual for the usual rich brat he served with this car as their first model. It was actually nice to see the look of wonderment at a good car for a change in a customer.

The man held out a set of keys for Harry and said, "Enjoy your new car, sir."

Harry snapped out of it and smiled, "Thanks," he said with some excitement. Then he frowned, "How are you getting back to Metropolis? Need a lift or anything?"

"Thank you," the man said honestly pleased at the concern, "but I have one," he said waving off to the side and showing a much less exciting looking car with a man waiting for him.

"Okay good, well thanks for the delivery."

"My pleasure Mr. Black," the man said, "Anything else you need," he handed Harry a card, "Don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you," Harry said and tucked the card into his wallet for safe keeping.

With that the man left and Harry reached into his pocket and dialed Walt.

A chuckle answered the line, "Like it then do you?"

"It's amazing Walt but seriously isn't it a bit much."

"You're not hiding that you're well off Harry you own one of the largest homes in the area by yourself so why not have some indulgence."

"I'm definitely paying you back though Walt this thing must have cost a fortune."

"I told you not to worry about it, consider it a house warming gift."

"Walt…"

"Please, just accept it," Walt said seriously. "This is just my small thanks for what you have done so just enjoy it."

"Thank you, Walt," Harry said knowing when he was beaten.

"If you look in the boot and they have done what I've asked, there should be some bed covers and the like for you as well. I wasn't sure they would have that sort of thing in that tiny town of yours so I got some and sent them along."

"That's great – thanks again, Walt."

"My pleasure, now I've got a meeting coming up…"

"Right sorry, thanks one last time and I'll be in touch," Harry said a smile in his voice.

"'Bye Harry," Walt said and hung up.

Harry shook his head and then walked out to look at his new car. He knew how to drive as he had been given the training that any Mundane would have gained by his age in school; including driving lessons. That said; he was more than a little nervous at driving around a sports car of all things as his first car. The insurance alone must've been staggering, but then Walt had a way around most things so who knew?

He triggered the central locking and countered the alarm and the car came to life which surprised the hell out of Harry. Walt must have gotten some optional extras. He opened the door and slid into the leather seats of the idling car and smiled at the heady feeling of it all. He placed his hands on the steering wheel and feet on the proper pedals and just revved the engine a few times. Then he put on his harness and closed the door before slowly reversing and turning to face his driveway. Then he looked at the expanse of drive waiting for him and smirked slightly.

Throwing caution to the wind he sprang the car into action and after the wheels found purchase in the gravel drive it leapt down the drive picking up speed as it went along. Harry let out a whoop of joy, the feeling of acceleration not unlike his broomstick though obviously not in the air, and he laughed with the exhilaration. Then as the car reached the end of his drive in double quick time he slowed it down to a normal speed, carefully indicated and pulled out onto the highway.

Cruising along at a decent clip, just over the speed limit, it didn't take Harry long to find his way into town and he parked his new best thing in the world with care and attention. Then set the alarm and looked around for some sign of a grocery store or something that he needed. The first thing that grabbed his attention was what looked to be a closed down cinema that dominated the town. Harry took a moment and went to look at the cinema first out of curiosity as, apparently, it was currently closed but he learned it was due to reopen under new management soon as a coffee shop. This was good as Harry fully intended on becoming a caffeine addict as the coffee he had tasted in New York had set his senses all a tingle. He just wished it was open now as he was bloody starving and could do with something to eat.

After a little while of walking up one side of the town and then down the other he found a grocery store and quickly made enough purchases to fill his larder and fridge/freezer for a while. Then he juggled the bags all the way back to his car, opened the boot with a button on his keychain and managed to pack most of it in the slightly small boot. He put the rest in the passenger seat of the car itself and then smiled to himself. All in all he was quite looking forward to cooking in his own home for himself and planned on having a slap up meal. Perhaps even a full fried English breakfast with all the workings.

With that in mind he slipped into his driver's seat and started the car before pulling out of his parking space and heading home.

**The Next Day**

Harry smacked his lips together and beamed, his second breakfast in his new home was even better than his last. He had to actually thank the Dursley's for something and that was quite amazing, they had made sure he could cook and cook well too. Now he was fully reaping the benefits of those hard learned lessons and he had to admit he was enjoying it immensely. Part of that was in knowing that they were now stuck trying to care for themselves, and he knew they would fail in that.

He took his mind off his odious relatives and set it towards what he was going to do that day. He still had several things that he needed for his home, a phrase that still boggled his mind, and he was intending to use the GPS on his car to get him to Metropolis since he had no clue where it was really, other than a taxi ride he had slept most of the way on. Luckily his car had all the mod cons on it so if he could just figure out the GPS he was on his way. He glanced at his watch and smiled. He picked up his slim mobile and dialed Walt.

"Walter Cummings – oh hi Harry," Walt said, "Problem?"

"No actually I was just wondering if you were free for lunch or something."

"Coming to Metropolis," Walt asked, "I can free up my lunch I think."

"If it's no bother I thought it would be cool," Harry said.

"I'll do that, say 2pm I can definitely make sure to be free by then as it's after most everyone else."

"Good I'll find your HQ, I think I can at least, I have the address and I'm trying to figure out the GPS on my car," Harry said nudging the manual with his hand and glaring at it slightly. It wasn't the easiest thing to work out for someone with very little experience with such things.

"Sounds good Harry – got to go now, see you at 2pm I'll let them know you're coming."

"Thanks Walt," Harry said closing down the call and grabbing his keys from the kitchen top.

He grabbed the manual for the GPS at the last moment and then made his way to his beloved car before hopping in and setting off towards Metropolis, or possibly the Arctic he wasn't too sure at that point.

**Intellitech Incorporated – 2pm**

Harry was sitting in the reception area of the actual HQ of Intellitech Incorporated, the office in New York had been a satellite office, and waiting for Walt to turn up. Thus far that day he had been very busy making a great deal of purchases for his home. Most of which were shrunken and in the boot of his car. He was slightly worried he was going to blow a few things up so they were not shrunken, but most of his purchases were of a home making variety so they seemed fine to shrink. The expensive laptop and PDA on the other hand he had just put away without the dangerous step of using magic on them. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to need for school either so he had brought a variety of supplies with that in mind as well as a host of other knickknacks that he thought he might need and some things to make his home more personalized to him.

"Hi Harry," Walt said walking into the reception area with a broad smile for his young charge.

"Hey Walt," Harry said moving into step with the large man as they left the building, leaving a surprised looking receptionist behind.

"So, what do you think of Metropolis," Walt asked as they walked out the door.

"Big," Harry answered succinctly.

Walt laughed and nodded, "That it is, nearly as big as New York in fact with good lines of trade for the entire country which is why we're here rather than New York or LA."

Harry nodded that made sense to him he supposed, "What is it you do," Harry found himself asking.

"You bought a big share in the company and you didn't find out first," Walt asked looking annoyed.

Harry smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

"We specialize in a few things actually, power management needs and generation of next generation sources of power. We design computer systems for large scale needs and especially things like NASA who need massive computing power."

"All Dutch to me," Harry admitted.

Walt shook his head, "I'm getting you training in computer science," he decided firmly, "I can't have you so ignorant of what we do and why it's done. Not when you own so much of my stock."

Harry laughed, "So what else," he asked.

Walt smiled, "Well don't tell anyone but one of our next generation power generators has garnered more than the usual amount of interest from parts of the US government and if the deal goes through you and I will be VERY rich."

"Now _that_ I do understand, and don't worry I'll not tell a soul."

"I knew you wouldn't, but that said you should keep up to date with what's going on in the company, Harry, so I'm going to arrange to have reports sent to your account. We got you a computer system right?"

"Yeah, not even turned it on yet though, but I did buy myself a laptop today."

"Take it back, we'll send you one of ours," Walt said seriously, "We don't actually build them as such but with the enhancements we have available we can improve on anything you might be able to buy out of a shop."

"Okay," Harry said with another small shrug.

"I think we should make sure you have a good system at home as well all things considered – I'll come down myself though since we don't want a lot of people knowing about you."

"That's very kind of you Walt," Harry said with a smile, "I'm not sure I'd make the best use of it though."

Walt waved him off, "I was told your trainers thought you had quite an aptitude for computing and your aptitude testing was off the chart for certain area of the computer sciences, you just need to get over that Wiz…" he trailed off, "That thinking that's been instilled into you by your old teachers. Computers are a magic all of their own you know."

Harry laughed, "Alright – you win, I'll do it."

"Good lad," Walt said fondly, "Now where shall we eat?"

"No idea, I was hoping you knew of somewhere – only this is my treat okay?"

"Okay Harry, have it your way," Walt said with a laugh, "Anyway my day is slow for a change today so I was thinking I could come down tonight if that's alright?"

"Of course, you are welcome to come over whenever you like – tell you what, why not bring Marie and I'll cook."

Walt raised an eyebrow, "You can cook?"

"Very well actually, even if I do say so myself," Harry said with a smirk.

"Alright – why not, she's been going on about seeing you again since last you met anyway so I'm sure she'll be pleased to come. What time do you want us over?"

"Anytime, I can set myself to your schedule I know you're a busy man Walt," Harry told him seriously, then he smiled, "It's not like I have anything better to do at the moment; not until I start school at any rate."

"You still sure you want to do that," Walt asked.

"I have to fit in and that means my diploma and all that good stuff and honestly while it scares me a little I'm kind of looking forward to it."

Walt nodded, "Normality," he said seriously.

"Got it in one Walt," Harry said with a serious nod.

Walt looked up, "We're here, come on I can get us a table and then I need to make a call to my wife."

**Harry's House, 8:50pm**

Marie Cummings was a good looking woman of 40 years of age and the years had been kind to her. Her long auburn hair was still mostly free of grey and her face smooth, and unlike her husband she was no squib. She was a full witch and had left the Wizarding world due to the prejudices that ran rampant in it and the war that had rocked it. She and her husband, though, were unable to have children and Walter had turned his attention to making his wife as rich as he was able and it turned out he was very good at it. They had met in America itself though they were both British by birth, or in her case Irish.

Recently though, her husband had met and befriended a young man by the name of Harry Black, his origins were shrouded in mystery even to her but since her husband was doing favors for a one Albus Dumbledore she had a bit of an idea as to Harry Black really was. She had been most surprised to find that the boy was unlike any celebrity that she had ever met and was shy and unassuming as well as being most pleasant company. He certainly didn't live up to the massive hype that was going on about him in the Wizarding media especially in the UK at that moment in time. It appeared the young man just simply wanted a quiet life and she could respect that. The one thing that did make sense about him was the sheer power that seemed to pour off him all the time, it was even more than the legendary Albus Dumbledore was known to put out in his younger years she was sure. That was the only sign that he was really the magical hero he was vaunted to be.

She had to admit; she had taken a shine to the young man after her first meeting and had been more than a little keen to meet him again. She wasn't fond of puzzles on the whole, but Harry was a very pleasant enigma that she enjoyed being around. The fact that her husband seemed to be in the middle of emotionally adopting him also made sure that she was interested in spending more time with the young wizard. So when the opportunity had come to meet him again she had sprung onto it with both feet despite having to cancel her normal spa session for that time of the week.

Now as she sat at the table in his modest home she was seeing a new side to Harry Black that she rather liked. It was a domestic one which was more than a little curious. With Wizards being the way they were, cooking by hand was not something they were very good at. So while her husband did his own special form of magic with the computer equipment they had brought with them she had settled in to watch Harry at work.

"Can I help," she asked, her pleasant Irish accent just tingeing her tone.

"No, thanks Mrs. Cummings I'm good – just finishing off the last few things and then I'm ready when Walt is."

"If you can call my husband Walt, can you not call me Marie," she chided him gently.

"Sorry Ma'am – I mean – Marie," Harry said flashing a disarming grin. A grin that she was sure was going to wow the girls in the Highschool when he started there. He was a good looking young man with a startlingly attractive pair of emerald eyes. Yes he was going to be dangerous to the opposite sex when he gained a little more self confidence. Confidence she felt he was probably going to get in short order living alone and caring for himself in such a way. Normally she would be horrified at the thought of such a young man having to live alone like this but Harry seemed to be blossoming under the pressure of running a home and it was good to see. When she had first met him he had been so care worn and more than a little dazed. But then if she was right it was of no surprise to her that he would be so.

"What are we having Harry," Walt asked as he walked back into the room dusting himself off slightly and with a big smile on his face.

"Nothing too amazing, just a good roast with all the trimmings," Harry replied, "Are you ready Walt?"

"I can be, there are a few things to do and a couple of books to give you but that can wait, and I'm hungry. I can't remember the last time I had a home cooked roast."

"Is that a complaint," Marie asked with a smirk on her face.

"Of course not my love," Walt said back peddling quickly. "We eat out so often now…" he said spreading his hands in supplication.

"Uh huh," Marie said with a covert wink at Harry that made the young man smile again.

Harry served up a delicious meal that had the two older people complimenting him red and they spoke of light things over the dinner table until pudding had been served and Walt sat back and patted his stomach, "You'll make someone a fine wife one day Harry," he said with a smirk.

"Oh pish, that was lovely Harry thank you so much – though I will have to spend extra time in the gym," Marie said with a smile.

"I don't know why my love, you're always gorgeous."

"I think the wine has gone to your head, luckily I'm driving," Marie commented.

Walt just smiled at her broadly, as if he knew any other way, and burped slightly, "Excuse me."

Harry laughed, "I'll take that as a compliment, I have to admit the produce around here is amazing."

"That's what you get for living out in the country Harry," Marie told him, "Sometimes I miss it, but out here the country is so very much larger than Ireland."

"It's pretty big out here that's for sure," Harry agreed. "If you'd like to go into the lounge I'll get coffee on the go."

The two elder people smiled at him and complied, taking seats in the comfort charmed sofa leaving the chair for Harry. "He knows his comfort charms," Marie commented as she sank back into the sofa.

"He's a bit of a wiz buy all accounts – excuse the pun," Walt said laughing slightly.

Marie rolled her eyes but smiled slightly as well. Harry came back into the room a minute later with two steaming coffees and placed them on the coffee table then went back for his own. One of the things he had purchased while in New York, at a specialty store, was a coffee machine of the type found in coffee shops. He was still learning how to use it, but it made really good coffee.

When he finally took a seat Marie graced him with a smile and said, "That was wonderful – thank you Harry."

"It was my pleasure and was the least I could do after everything."

"It was no problem Harry, but you now have a problem to deal with," Walt said.

"Oh?"

"I'm going to want a repeat performance of that," Walt said with a chuckle.

"Anytime Walt and you too of course Marie," Harry said with a smile.

"Thank you Harry," she said gracefully.

"So what have you done for me Walt, you were tinkering for a good long while."

"I've set up a few things Harry," Walt said sitting forward and grabbing his coffee, "I've set up a high speed connection to our servers and via them the internet in a slightly more secure way for you. Luckily you have some nice speed around here which was a shock to be honest. I've networked your house so you can wirelessly connect anywhere with the Laptop I brought with me. Username and Password are on this," he said passing over a sheet of paper to Harry. "I've left a few books in the car but I'll give you those before I go. It would be good if you read them through and learned what they have to teach. All of them," Walt said with a smile.

"I will – I promise," Harry said.

"Other than that I've given you an emergency power backup or UPS as it is known and upgraded all your systems to proprietary stock."

"Cool, and after I've read those books will I know what you just said," Harry said with a teasing smile.

Walt growled playfully, "You had better."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three – Neighbors**

_Smallville, Kansas – Day_

Harry was once more awoken by the sound of crowing from the next door farm. "Fucking stupid bird," he swore to himself as he rolled out of bed and landed face first on the floor. Mornings were not his best time, and he had spent a late night talking with Marie and Walt before seeing them off so waking up this early was not on his agenda.

Still he was due to start school the next day so all he had to do was amuse himself for the next 24 hours and then, finally, he would be doing something again; even if that something was going to school again. He had tested out of Hogwarts with full marks in all the subjects there and the training he had received over the summer probably filled up the quota to meet and even exceed the GED, but that wasn't the main reason that Harry was going back to school. He was doing it to fit in and, as strange as that sounded, just testing straight out for his diploma wouldn't suit that at all. He needed to go to Highschool just like anyone else his age, even if he was entering the school quite late, and he could do with making some friends in the process as well.

He quickly changed into a work out outfit; he had been too lazy for too long since arriving it was time to get back into the habit of running and working out. He fully intended on getting some training gear for his basement, or the part of it he was keeping 'Muggle' at least, that could wait however, but doing something could not. So he changed into shorts and T and walked down to his kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before getting his keys and running out the door.

He was unsure where he was going, so he just picked a direction and took off at full speed as was his wont to do. He had become very fit in the summer of his fifth year and had only improved since then. It was impossible for him to have the skills he had without being fit as some of them required body strength and a great deal of stamina to pull off. His magic had taken care of a lot of that for him, but he still had to work out and practice to maintain those skills and fitness levels.

He ran passed a plethora of corn fields as he circled what was his land, it was as if he was surrounded on all sides by farms – which of course he was. They didn't make him feel like he was hemmed in though; the wide open spaces actually made him feel freer than he had felt in some time. He was used to being confined for the most part in his early life and beyond and now he had no barriers on where he went or what he did. So he was running full tilt towards god alone knew where tracing the outer limits of his property lines crossing a few defunct looking fields that hadn't been worked in some time. He would have to do something about that, he knew he owned them but it was criminal to let them lay fallow. Perhaps he should go across to the farm house closest to him and make them some sort of offer. He didn't have a lot of land but there were enough fields that they could be worked into a good crop rotation he was sure. Not that he knew much about such things. He would go next door and introduce himself (wasn't that a neighborly thing to do in America?) and then sound them out about what to do with the fields. It was better that, than have them wasting away.

His run lasted a good hour and ended with him covered in sweat. He wasn't used to running in such heat and it was only early on in the day, but being magical it gave him a great deal of extra stamina and some extra levels of fitness that a mundane would not have. He also healed much faster, so he would have to watch himself when, not if, he got hurt. It couldn't be if he got hurt, because he knew himself too well he was bound to suffer and injury at some point.

He made it back to his house and puffed his way through a cool down before taking a good shower and getting dressed. Then he took care with his appearance and got in his car. He could walk to the farm it was close enough, but honestly he loved his car and intended to enjoy it as much as he could. So he drove out of one long driveway and then up another parking behind a work truck and got out again. It was the height of laziness but it was just so much fun. He then walked up to the house, found a likely looking doorway, and knocked as politely as he could.

"I'll get it mom," a male voice called out and then the door was opened and Harry found himself looking up at an intelligent pair of blue eyes set in a handsome face.

"Hi," Harry said craning his neck slightly, they sure did grow them big in Kansas, "I'm your new next door neighbor I just thought I would pop over and say hi there."

The guys eyes flicked to Harry's car and then back to Harry, "Come on in," he said with a pleasant smile on his face. "I'm Clark by the way."

"Harry," Harry said walking into what appeared to be a kitchen in full flow of making breakfast. His mouth watered as they were having a full farmer's breakfast and it smelt delicious.

"Hello," an auburn haired and still quite attractive woman said walking into the room.

"Hey Mom, this is Harry – apparently he's our new next door neighbor. Which side?" Clark said the last to Harry.

Harry pointed off to the right.

"Lana's old place," Clark asked his eyes becoming slightly sharper.

Harry shrugged helplessly, "Sorry who? I was told that someone called Crawley or something like that was there last I don't really remember to be honest."

"Never mind that Clark. Come in, what was your name again," the woman asked.

"I'm Harry – Harry Black."

"Well I'm Martha and my husband Jonathan is out in the barn he'll be back in a few minutes. Would you like to join us for breakfast?"

Harry thought that was very friendly but said, "Ah, no I wouldn't want to impose."

"Not a problem honestly," then Martha smirked as Harry's stomach put in its own opinion. "Please join us and you can tell us about yourself."

Harry smiled, and glared at his traitorous stomach before nodding, "That's very kind," he said being mostly man-handled into a chair at the central kitchen table.

"Anything you don't like," Martha asked.

"Nothing that I'm aware of Ma'am," Harry said with a smile, "It all smells amazing thus my stupid stomach getting involved."

Martha laughed slightly, "Please do call me Martha though Harry, so tell me – how do you come to be in our neck of the woods."

"Ah, actually I expatriated from England recently and I threw a dart and ended up here," Harry admitted to some chuckles from Clark. "I was looking for a fresh start and this seemed like as good a place as any to get one."

Martha and Clark shared a glance that caused Harry to wonder what they were hiding, he brushed against Clark's mind and it was like hitting steel, then he tried Martha and found her much more open. Images of various events were flashing before her mind's eye that seemed fantastical to Harry and almost made him moan in frustration. Apparently he might not get the quiet life he had been looking for if the woman's memories were anything to go by. He carefully maintained a neutral expression on his face as various food stuffs were laid out before him and instead concentrated on the incoming meal."This all smells amazing urh – Martha."

"Thank you Harry, it's just a normal breakfast though."

"Mom's the best cook in the county," Clark boasted with a fond smile at his mother.

"I'll bet she is from the smell alone," Harry said with a grin.

"Say, there's a Porsche in the drive way," a voice said from the doorway, as a sandy haired man walked in and smiled, "Hello."

"Hello – I'm Harry," Harry said getting up to shake the man's hand.

"Pleased to meet you," Jonathan said warily, and then noticed that breakfast was laid out and apparently the stranger was invited.

"Harry just moved in next door," Martha said by way of explanation. "He just popped over to introduce himself."

"Well, actually there was another reason I came over," Harry admitted and noticed the new looks between the three. "I need a farmer's opinion."

"Oh?" Jonathan said taking a seat.

"It's nothing big or anything but I was on a run today, on my land, and I noticed I've got a few quite big fields."

"Yes, Lana and Nell used to graze horses there, but the lands mostly been fallow for years now," Clark said.

"Right, and that bothers me," Harry admitted. "I'm never going to use those fields for anything other than something to run around. So – what should I do?"

"That's some prime land," Jonathan said rubbing his chin in thought with a sound like sand paper.

"That's what I thought," Harry said with a nod, "It's not that I want to work it myself or anything I'm not really into that sort of thing and besides I'm going to be busy with school and stuff."

"Well there are a few farmers around you that would be willing to pay to use it."

"Money doesn't interest me greatly," Harry admitted.

"So I can tell from your car," Jonathan said with a smile.

"Thing is, you're closest," Harry said with a smile, "Would you be willing to work the land?"

"We can't really afford to pay you …" Jonathan began but was cut off by Harry.

"I'm not looking to be paid in money – though with how this tastes I might want breakfast occasionally." Harry said with a big smile, "No I just want it doing something. When I was young I learned never to be wasteful and having that land there doing nothing is wasteful and I hate that. So if I can come to an arrangement with you for I dunno some occasional fresh produce or something will you work the land as your own? I can get a contract drawn up if that makes you happier, at my cost, I just really want it doing something."

"Well I can understand not wanting to waste land and the extra land would be useful to us I won't lie," Jonathan said with a slight smile, "But not to be rude – what do you want out of this."

Harry tucked another forkful of food into his mouth, "Can I have your wife as my cook," he asked with a grin, "Other than that like I said some fresh produce – nothing big. I like to cook myself and I was telling some friends last night the produce here is amazing."

"We're proud of it," Martha admitted.

"Are you sure there's nothing else you want though Harry, that's prime land," Clark asked.

Harry smirked, "Can I shoot the bloody cockerel?"

The room exploded into laughter for a moment before they settled down, "No," Jonathan said with a smile, "But other than that send me the contract and I'll have my lawyer look at it before I give you a definite answer then next season we'll see what we can see."

"Excellent, I really hate wasting things," Harry admitted and it was true in his early life wasting things meant he went hungry; even if that included somewhat rancid meat he knew he still had to eat the stuff or be much more ill in the end. It had imbedded in him a real hate for being wasteful and nothing he did, even the way he moved, was a waste.

"It sure seems that way son," Jonathan said with a small smile. "So you're going to school – here?"

"I am," Harry said, "Smallville High on Monday."

"I go there," Clark said, "I'll show you the ropes if you like."

"That'd be great thanks mate," Harry said.

"The girls are going to love that accent," Martha said with a twinkle in her eye.

Harry blushed slightly.

"Talking of girls, where's our – house guest," Clark said sounding slightly distasteful when he said it.

Martha rolled her eyes, "Lois is not up yet."

"Who's not up yet – oh hello," Lois Lane said stepping into the room; eyes on Harry with a gleam in them.

Harry blinked and then blinked again, "Hi," he said smiling slightly at the highly attractive woman that had just come down the stairs.

"Well hi there, British?"

"For my sins," Harry replied.

"Well Clark I didn't know you had friends – at all, let alone British ones," Lois said with a teasing smirk on her face.

"Harry's our new next door neighbor," Clark said, "Finally up then; it's like halfway through the day."

Harry frowned and looked at his watch, nope it was like 8am, and he wasn't mistaken. He glanced between Clark and Lois and then went 'Ahh' with his expression.

Martha smirked having had much the same reaction herself when seeing them bantering together. She wasn't sure yet though if it was attraction or something else, but their bantering was a lot of fun to listen in on.

"Anyway, I should leave you to it I've taken up a load of your time – and your breakfast – already," Harry said standing up from the table.

"No problems Harry, you're welcome anytime. It can't be fun having to cook for yourself over there all the time so consider yourself invited for breakfast whenever you like." Martha said having taken a shine to the young man.

"I may just take you up on that, Mr. Kent I'll get those documents to you – Clark, Lois, nice to meet you and Clark I'll see you in school tomorrow no doubt."

With that he smiled at the room and left the kitchen as Lois said, "Hot," just before he was out of ear shot. Blushing pink he beat a quick exit and headed for his car as fast as he could without being impolite. Lois was staggeringly hot, but he had no idea what to do with a woman being attracted to him unless it was for his fame, though it was nice to be thought hot by a hot woman, without them knowing his fame at all for a change.

_Harry's House – Later_

Harry put down another book that Walt had lent him and frowned slightly. Thanks to occlumency he had amazing retention, somewhat of a photographic memory but this was beyond that in some way. It actually made sense to him and that did not compute with his upbringing. He had not touched a computer before coming to the States and now, after his training, he was comfortable with their use even if he didn't seek them out. But there was a whole world waiting to be taken advantage of inside the processor of a computer and it was turning out to be a fascinating experience.

He got out of his comfy chair and walked up the stairs into his private office and looked at the system that Walt had set up for him. It was much more impressive to look at than the one he had originally been set up with and seemed to have boxes and wires that the other one did not have.

He sat down in his office chair and pulled himself up to the desk, kicking the base unit on with the toe of his foot and waited the short time it took to boot up. Then he logged on with the details that Walt had provided for him and watched it go through the process of logging him on.

The books he had just read had gone from the very lowest of levels of computer science to basic use and beyond and he still had a few to go. He was presented with a fairly basic layout, one that he was sure was standard on such systems, and flicked through the various menu items and icons looking through the system. It appeared as if Walt had used some of the company licenses for Harry and had installed a set of business systems like word processing, etc. There was also a computer programming suite that Harry knew he was going to have to use, since it was there, and even a few games that Harry was pleased to see.

He had no idea how to play a computer game and it suddenly struck him as sad that he didn't. He knew the best course to fixing that though, and started up one of the games letting it lead him through the tutorial, and he was soon wandering across a virtual landscape. It was one of the more popular MMORPG's on the market and had magic, fighting and a host of different classes and the like. It was only a trial but soon after he got going on the game Harry decided he was buying it and that was all there was to it. In fact he was already fairly sure this was going to be one of his new obsessions and had to smile at that fact. The magic was almost like his wandless magic actually and even gave him a few ideas to try out, but it was of course on a grander and more sweeping scale than most of the wandless magic he ever produced.

He gave himself a good hour of playing his brand new mage character before logging off and toying with the next game in line which was a space based flight game. It was good, but he didn't get the feeling of flying that he did from being on a broomstick and because of that it lacked a certain something. Therefore, he didn't play it for long and instead started toying around with the programming suite.

The odd code which was virtually a language in itself seemed to make sense to Harry in some indefinable way and he quickly found himself using his occlumency skills to remember the book on the language he had been provided. He ran through the exercises and quickly produced a very simple Hello World program before moving on to the next stages. Time flew from that point and by the time he had finished it was already dark outside.

Harry cricked his neck as he stood up and let the system shut down before going to bed for the night. He knew he would be up with the birds the next day and it was, after all, the first day of school for him as well.

_Smallville High – Day_

Harry had indeed awoken with the birds that morning and was now raring to go. He had done a short work out and run before having a shower and a hearty breakfast. Then, after making sure it wasn't too early, he had started Walt on getting him a lawyer that would draw up the contract for the Kent's and had driven to school.

His car got more than a few admiring glances as he pulled up in it, but Harry had known that was going to happen. The Boxster might not be a top flight sports car but it was rare for someone in a farming town to have one in Highschool. So he was not too surprised at the gawking it drew, it was almost amusing though, to Harry, as he was supposed to be blending in and so far he had done anything but.

He got out of his car, grabbed his bag, and walked up to the front steps of the large school. It probably wasn't even that big by American standards but even considering Hogwarts the place looked enormous to Harry. He smiled as he saw Clark Kent walking up to him and they shared a quick hello.

"How are you this fine morning," Harry asked looking up at the clear blue sky.

"Good thanks, I talked to the admin office and tried to get myself made mentor for you but apparently they already have one chosen for you," Clark told the shorter guy.

Harry nodded, "Thanks for trying mate, but I suppose it will be good to meet another new person along the way. Wow," he added as a cheerleader walked past.

Clark grinned slightly, "Enjoying the view," he asked with amusement.

"Let's just say my old school was all for uniforms – but not like that. They were very conservative and more than a little boring and certainly didn't show anywhere near as much skin," Harry said with a chuckle.

"Well, no doubt you'll get used to it," Clark commented leaning back to settle himself next to Harry and do a little girl watching himself. He may be more fixated on a certain brunette girl than anything else but that didn't stop him from enjoying the female form as much as the next guy. Well considering that currently the next guy was Harry perhaps not quite as much. Harry was almost boggle eyed at that point at some of the clothing choices.

Even in New York he had not had time to associate with people his own age much. Hogwarts had left him woefully under prepared for the clothing choices of girls his own age in a typical Highschool and it was he had to admit, pumping the hormones a little more than usual.

Harry gave himself a shake when he realised he was staring a little too hard and pushed his hormones back under his control. He half turned and noticed that Clark appeared to have suddenly become alert like a pointer dog at something in the crowd. "What's up," Harry asked cautiously.

"Oh nothing, I just saw a familiar face."

"I would've thought most people would be familiar after going to school here for as long as you undoubtedly have," Harry said with a slight smirk. He liked Clark and hoped to be friends with the big guy and from what he had briefly seen the day before with the extremely hot Lois the guy could hold his own in a snark fest.

Clark smirked and rolled his eyes, "Is that some of the famous dry British humor in action."

Harry laughed and shrugged, "Maybe a little," he admitted.

"So," Harry added after a moment, "Any idea who my mentor is?"

"Yeah it's my friend Chloe," Clark said, "She's a good person and I think you'll like her. She certainly knows her way around the school."

"Cool, do me a favor and point her out to me when you see her," Harry said with a smile.

"Sure," Clark said with a friendly smile. "I'm a little early – so are you – so she'll be here soon."

"I thought I'd get a jump on the day and I've been up since your bloody cockerel went off this morning."

Clark snickered, "Sorry."

"Uh huh, one of these days I'll think of a way to shut the stupid thing up."

"Just don't kill it," Clark said semi-seriously.

"I was kidding about killing it," Harry said detecting the less humorous tone. "I wouldn't hurt an animal unless it was hurting me first. Especially a bird – with any luck mine will be here soon."

"You have a bird?"

"A Snowy Owl, she's going through some customs procedures are the moment," Harry said with a put upon sigh, "Stupid laws."

Clark nodded sympathetically, "Interesting pet to have."

"She is, and it'll be interesting to see how she settles here."

"Doesn't it normally take something like 6 months to get an animal through customs," Clark asked.

"Not in this case," Harry said with a smirk knowing full well she was going through magical customs. Hedwig had been a major sticking point with his move actually, as she was more than a little noticeable and many people knew his familiar was a snowy owl. Harry had put his foot down though, she was his familiar after all and there was no way he was going to be without her and she was also a link to his previous life that he didn't want to give up. It was almost as hard to get her as it had been to make sure he was linked to the American Floo system, not that it had happened by that point in time.

"How come," Clark asked, making small talk.

"Special dispensation and I paid a lot of money to speed things through to the best of my ability," Harry admitted. "I don't make a big deal out of my money but sometimes it's right useful."

"Ahh," Clark said with a sagely nod of his head. "A while back now, the Luthor's, they're like the local rich people, had a castle moved over from Scotland."

"A whole castle," Harry asked with a laugh, "Why?"

"I asked that, and Lex said because they could."

"Luthor, name sounds familiar," Harry said tapping his chin.

"They're not that well thought of," Clark said darkly, "Especially around here."

"Oh dear, because I think I own some of their stock – but I'd have to check."

"Really, you own some LuthorCorp stock."

"That's the name, yeah, I'm sure of it now, I do, quite a bit, but I was told it was a solid investment. Was I told wrong?"

"No, they'll make money, no matter what they'll make money."

"Not sure I like the sound of that," Harry admitted. "I'm all for making more money, but not at the cost of my morals, such as they are. Thanks for the tip Clark I'll have that investigated and if I don't like the way they do business I'll pull out I think."

"Well," Clark said looking embarrassed, "I didn't mean for you to do that."

"I know mate, don't worry, but you did give me a hint they might not be urh shall we say totally upfront in their dealings. I can handle a little under handed dealings; I've been lead to understand that's normal in business, but only to a point."

"Okay, urh – can I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure, if it's too personal I'll let you know."

"If you have money and you obviously do, why come to a normal Highschool out in the boondocks?"

"Because it's normal," Harry said with a smile, "I just want a normal life and all that entails. Plus this place has a good academic record and some good electives so why not. I really did choose the place at random but at the same time I made sure it had what I needed."

Clark nodded as if that made sense to him and they went back to watching the girls walk past.

"Oh," Harry said after a moment, "I rang my… well, guardian type guy, and he's setting the contract up for your folks with the terms I set out last night." Harry said and then smirked, "So expect me for breakfast soon."

Clark laughed, "I'll let mom know," he said.

"Seriously, I thought I made a good breakfast but I have nothing on your mum."

"She'd be pleased to hear that," Clark said with a fond smile for his mother.

Suddenly Clark stood upright and waved his hand, "Chloe," he called out.

A cute blonde turned in the crowd beamed a beautiful smile and walked over to them, "Hey Clark, who's your friend."

"This is Harry, urh I never did catch your last name," Clark said looking back at Harry.

Harry stood up and smiled at Chloe, "Black, Harry Black."

"Oh, I'm your mentor," Chloe said eying the young brit with some appreciation. To Harry, he was still that underfed skinny kid from under the cupboard; that was not what the rest of the world saw though. He was built, slender but very well, and had confidence in his every move. Without his glasses his eyes positively shone and he had been drawing admiring glances all morning without even noticing.

"Yeah, Clark told me," Harry said and held out his hand for Chloe to shake, which she did and smiled at him again. The girl had one hell of a smile he had to admit. She wasn't as classically hot as Lois was but she was no slouch in the looks department either and when she smiled she could blow your socks off. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"So what brings a British person to our tiny little town," Chloe asked.

"Now Chloe," Clark began warningly.

"What, I'm just being friendly," Chloe said with another smile.

Clark rolled his eyes, "You'll have to excuse Chloe she is the consummate reporter in every way and if you're not careful she'll have your life story out of you before you know it."

Chloe whacked Clark in a friendly manner with her hand, "So where do you want to start? Can I see your schedule?"

"I don't have one of those yet," Harry admitted, "I was talking to Clark here and forgot to get one."

"Well come on, we'd better get you one of those right away, I know neither you or I have classes this morning though so I can show you around and get you settled in."

"That's a good idea," Harry admitted wondering why Hogwarts never did something like that, but then they never seemed to get students midyear either, so the prefects sorted out first years.

The three walked into the school proper and Harry was struck by all the banners around the place. "We're proud of our football team," Clark said as an aside to the looking around man beside him.

"The Crows," Harry asked with a strange look on his face.

"The mascot is a crow too," Chloe filled in.

"Why a crow," Harry asked.

The two natives looked at each other and shrugged, "Not sure actually. It's always been a crow."

Harry smiled and nodded, "Fair enough."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four – Highschool**

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_Smallville High - Day_

"And this, is The Torch," Chloe said with a flourish as she opened a door. She sounded inordinately proud. She had spent the morning showing him where all his classes where and telling him tidbits as they went along. She had waited while he had his interview with the principal who had seemed like a nice enough man. It was strange to see a headmaster without a portrait covered office and a Phoenix though. Then finally she had led him to a door and opened it announcing as she did.

Harry looked into the room to see several desks arrayed around with what looked to be iMacs on them. "What happens here then," Harry asked.

"This is the school newspaper. I run it, I'm the editor," Chloe said sounding proud again.

"Cool, editor in chief of a newspaper huh, impressive."

"Well not that impressive but I've broken some interesting stories over the years I've been running it," Chloe said with another of her brilliant smiles.

Harry walked into the room proper and looked around at everything a little more closely. He could see why Chloe was proud and why she would be comfortable here as well. She really was a reporter at heart and had been peppering him with questions all throughout their tour together. He had done his best to answer those questions and shoot a few back at her as well. So he knew that she lived with her father and that he was currently without a job and a few other personal details. He liked her, he had to admit, she was bright and fun to be around, and had a rather intelligent mind that reminded him of some people from home.. He had to be careful though, that sense of home she engendered in him could make him slip up on his cover story. It was air tight he knew, with all sorts of back story and documentation to cover it. That said if he slipped up he knew if anyone would figure it out, it would be Chloe.

"There are a lot of desks," Harry said after a moment, "Must have a fair few working for you."

"Actually – not so much at the moment; Clark, and Lois and a couple of others, I'm short a few though."

"Really," Harry said sounding interested which Chloe leapt on quickly.

"Is that interest I hear in your voice?"

"I am yes, but I have no experience in being a reporter or doing any writing in that way," Harry admitted with shrug. "But I know I need some extra credit and this does sound like an interesting way of doing it. Plus I'm a curious sort of guy and generally put my nose in places that I should not."

"Tell you what," Chloe said looking thoughtful, "I'll give you an assignment and you write it up and give it to me. If I like what I see I'll let you in our little paper here. There's only the rest of the year left after all and by your schedule you actually have plenty of time to work on it."

"Yeah I wasn't expecting to have such a lot of time off," Harry admitted confused. "I mean several mornings and a whole day – isn't that kinda unusual?"

"Not in senior year," Chloe informed him, "The extra time is for study for the examinations."

Harry nodded, now that did make sense and given all the work he had already done and the mock tests he was fairly sure he would get by well without using all his time studying. They hadn't wanted him to struggle at all and the summer before hand had been crammed with training to the point that Harry had felt exhausted afterwards from brain ache. "So chief, what's my assignment?"

"Something simple to start with," Chloe said with a gleam in her eye, she obviously liked being called Chief. "I think… yeah… There's a game coming up – football, write up a story around that and let me see it."

Harry nodded, "Okay – just one thing, urh, I really have no idea what to do, or who the players are."

"Oh boy," Chloe said with a grin, "Come on let's go out and I'll show you that side of things as well. When you said you weren't interested in playing I didn't think it was worth it."

"Well it is, not just for the assignment. I'm all for school spirit and I want to get involved."

"There's a pep rally coming up you could visit as well, I'll find out when it is."

Harry didn't dare ask what the hell a pep rally was, so held off on that question for the moment. No doubt he would find out when he actually arrived at one. He did wonder how he was going to fit in with this new culture he was being introduced to though as it had very strange things in it he just wasn't used to hearing about. He was worried that he was going to stand out because he didn't know what half of it was, and while he knew that some of that could be passed off as being British he wasn't sure how far he could stretch that excuse.

"Say," Chloe began looking at Harry's hand, "That's an interesting looking ring."

Harry glanced down at his ring. It was part of his cover but real all the same, he had inherited it from Sirius and went with him being the last Black in line. They had created a Wizarding background for him at the same time as creating a Muggle one for him. It was slightly more tenuous but given how inbred most pureblood families where he was able to pull it off. So while it was part of his cover he was entitled to it. "It's the Black family signet ring," he said running a thumb over it. The Black crest was shown on it in onyx and it had a platinum band. It was very old and allowed him a quick escape route if he required it as well. It was his get out of jail free card and was linked to the only remaining property he still held on English soil.

"It's impressive looking," Chloe noted.

Harry smiled, "It's just a ring," he fibbed somewhat. It was far more than just a ring, it was a ducal ring but she didn't need to know that. The rightful owner of the ring was a duke in his own right and it had several magical properties that had been embedded into it over the years. The Portkey was just the most recent, and would work even across international borders. Something that only Albus Dumbledore was able to do in Britain due to his status as leader of the ICW.

"So, come on – let me show you the town's favorite pass time and borderline unhealthy obsession." Chloe said with a dimpled grin.

Harry followed her out of the Torch' office and out onto the grounds of the school to a large field with stands. It brought back memories of playing quidditch and a pang of loss. He had loved the game and had not been able to play in his final years of schooling. He was unlikely to ever feel the thrill of diving at the ground for the snitch ever again in his life and that made him slightly sad.

Chloe began by a brief introduction of the history of the game as played in Smallville and went on to explain a few of the rules. For which Harry was grateful as he had no idea on them at all, though he suspected that she left out quite a bit. He would have to ask one of the football players if he could, or perhaps Clark would know.

Cheerleaders were out on the field doing a practice which caught some of Harry's attention but he was far too good at occlumency, which wasn't just a way to protect the mind but a way to think on a whole different level, to be caught out. So when Chloe seemed to notice his split concentration and with a put upon sigh said, "Are you listening Harry?"

"Of course," Harry replied, "You were just telling me about the players and the new deputy coach they have this year."

Chloe looked pleased that he hadn't tuned her out to ogle cheerleaders, despite the fact that Harry had to admit he was doing some ogling.

"So is that all clear," Chloe asked after they had finished their tour around the sports field.

"Pretty much, it's a little like rugby but not, the town is obsessed with it and you don't like cheerleaders."

"I never said that," Chloe said with a half frown that was cute on her.

Harry smirked and refrained from saying anything. "I see you like to tease," Chloe noted.

"Who me," Harry replied with a straight face but eyes twinkling.

Chloe smiled at him again and led him back into the school proper, "It's lunch time – if you like you can sit with us?"

"That would be great, thanks," Harry said with a charming smile that had some effect on Chloe, not that he noticed.

She led him into the cafeteria and they met up with Clark and Lois who were already snarking at each other. "Hey guys," Chloe said as they walked up with their trays.

Harry slid in after Chloe took a seat next to Clark, leaving him next to Lois. Not something that he minded at all. It was funny, but he had never really had time before to notice women nearly as much as he had since starting school in America. Lois had a powerful feminine presence and the smile she graced him with was very attractive.

"Hey cuz, had fun with our new Brit," Lois said to Chloe.

Harry looked between the blonde and brunette, a little surprised. He had not realised that the two of them were related.

"Yep, please welcome – if he passes the test – our newest reporter for the Torch," Chloe said pointing at Harry while playing with her food.

"She conned you into it too," Clark asked getting a nudge in the ribs for his trouble.

"I asked actually," Harry said smiling at Chloe, "I need credits anyway, and the idea interests me I have to admit. I was always a nosey bugger."

Lois laughed, "Well no stealing my stories, you hear."

Harry clutched his chest, "I wouldn't dream of it Lois," he told her smiling.

Lois smiled at him with a twinkle in her eye and went back to eating, "Yurk, this stuff is worse than my old Highschool," she commented.

"You new here too," Harry asked.

Clark snickered, "She needs the credits too before she can get to Met U," he said sounding gleeful.

Lois glared at the tall guy for a moment, and then kicked him under the table.

Harry and Chloe shared an amused look, "So Met U huh?"

"Yeah I'll be out of here before you know it," Lois said, "and good riddance to it too."

"Don't you like it here, I think this place is cool." Harry asked seriously.

"Cool, Smallville – you have to be kidding."

Harry shrugged, "I like it so far, it's almost peaceful."

The others at the table all shared a look which caught Harry's interest. He had read some of what had happened in the town from Martha and now pushed his Legimency probe into the people around him, avoiding Clark. He had no wish for a headache; however he was doing it Clark was mostly immune to passive scans. Harry suspected that he could push a lot harder but Clark might notice that something was going on if he did so.

He got a better sense of the strange goings on of the town from Chloe in particular but Lois had seen a couple of things since arriving herself which were more than slightly odd. Harry reached out a little further to the tables around him and touched minds with a few people before drawing back. They had a mostly don't ask, don't tell attitude about it all but there were a few cheerleaders a table or so away that had some interesting thoughts. Harry turned to face them slightly and reached out with a little more force.

"Are you checking out the cheerleaders again, their boyfriends won't like that," Chloe said sounding slightly annoyed.

"Hmm," Harry said, "Not checking out; no," he answered her.

"What then," Lois asked, "Because with all that staring it sure seems like checking them out."

"I have a good gut instinct for trouble," Harry said distractively, "Those four are up to something"

"They're cheerleaders – it's in the handbook," Lois snarked.

Harry turned his attention back to his meal. He knew he couldn't just blurt out what they were up to without some proof and largely he wasn't sure what to do about it at that moment. He had to be careful with legimency around 'mundanes' they had no protection on their thoughts for the most part. So he could be picking up anything from a day dream to an actual memory.

"So other than checking out cheerleaders, what do you think of Smallville High," Clark asked with a tiny smirk.

Harry smirked back and replied, "Like you don't… As for the school it all looks good. I've yet to do a lesson and…" he checked his schedule. "I do not have one for the rest of the day." He shook his head, "I'm starting to wonder why I came to school with hardly any lessons to actually go to."

"Just think of it as a reprieve for all the classes you used to have to go to," Clark said, "I'm guessing it was the same in England."

"That is true," Harry mused. Not that he had gone to a lot of classes during his final years of Hogwarts. Thanks to the special training he had received from the headmaster he had not needed to, even testing out with O's on all subjects. He had been hoping that he would be challenged even a little by school. Perhaps he could find something else to use up his time there instead.

"The Talon will be open tomorrow," Clark said, "We can at least go hang out there."

"Oh I saw a sign on the door about that, I had not realised it was opening so soon," Harry said. "Since coming to America I've become more than slightly addicted to Coffee."

"Not a tea drinker," Chloe said with a fake gasp, "Traitor to the realm."

"I hate Tea, down fall of the British Empire you know." He smirked back.

They laughed a little and then ate some more. "So," Lois asked, "how does a student afford a car like that Porsche, does anyone know who it belongs to? I saw it out in the lot when I arrived this morning."

Clark looked at Harry with a smirk on his face.

"Okay Smallville, you obviously know something – what gives?"

"It's mine," Harry said after a moment.

"Whoa English, say that again," Lois said.

Harry cocked an eyebrow at the nickname but decided it was her way of saying she liked you. "It was a present from a very good friend of mine actually."

"A present," Clark asked shocked.

"He said it was a house warming gift – its nice though don't you think."

"I wish I had friends like that," Chloe commented, "My beetle has seen better years."

"I want friends like yours English," Lois told him, "Can I drive it?"

Clark shook his head in such a small way that Harry almost missed it, luckily he caught the movement and Lois did not. "Urh I'm not really insured for that," Harry said with a smile.

Lois pouted at him, which was more than a little tempting to give in to, but Harry held firm.

"Still that's a nice ride," Lois pointed out, "Why would a friend give you something like that?"

"Well, he is also my partner."

"Ohhh," the two girls said.

Harry frowned at that and then thought through what he had just said, "_Business_ Partner," he carefully said.

"Ohh," The girls said together again now without such understanding.

"It's not that big of a deal really," Harry said, "I'm not a gazillionaire or something but I do okay," he said leaving out that he was probably a billionaire by that point. He had not been far off after his conversion from magical to mundane money and now he was starting to see the dividends to his investments in certain companies. Some of which he had already had from inheritance others he had been advised on, and others he had chosen for himself. Oddly the ones he had chosen for himself were some of the better investments he had made. It seemed he had the knack for choosing good investments.

"So rich and good looking," Lois said with her usual brashness, "What's not to like?"

Harry blushed slightly and concentrated on his food for a moment, "I don't really make a big deal out of it, I live comfortably but I don't like to talk about it in great detail."

"Fair enough," Clark said firmly stilling Lois from saying anything further seeing that his new friend was obviously embarrassed.

"It does mean," Harry said, "that I can buy a lot of coffee for my friends though," he told them jokingly.

"The perfect man," Chloe pointed out, the biggest caffeine junky of the group.

Harry laughed, "Far from it," he admitted, "but I do love Caffeine."

After that they concentrated on finishing their meals until Harry – the last to finish – had done so. "So Chloe, what are you doing next?"

"I have classes this afternoon," she admitted, "I was only let out to help you out."

Harry nodded slightly disappointed, "Okay, I was hoping someone could show me to the library and hopefully a computer or two."

"I can do that," Clark said, "I have the next session free."

"That'd be great, I probably remember the way there, but I'd rather be sure." Harry told him, "I've got a pretty good memory in general but I'm not so good at directions for some reason. I even need GPS on my car, which I've only just worked out how to use," he said with self deprecating laughter.

Clark and he took their rubbish to the bins and stowed their trays and Clark led him to the library where there were plenty of books and a couple of computers. Harry used his new student ID to get access to the PC's while Clark pulled out some homework to do.

Harry took a look over it and said, "Astronomy?"

"It's an interest of mine," Clark admitted.

"I know a bit about that, my school had a fairly detailed class on it that I took so if you need any help let me know."

"Thanks, I will," Clark replied.

With that they settled into their own tasks.

They continued like that for a while before Harry suddenly said, "Say Clark – do you know anything about football?"

Clark smiled, "What do you need to know?"

"Everything," Harry said closing down his system.

With that Clark launched into an impassioned description of the game, the rules and various plays.

_Harry's House – After School_

Harry sat in his porch waiting for the truck that would deliver his work out gear to arrive. He had ordered it online the night before and paid the extra to have it delivered at a time of his choosing. He sipped on some coke as he waited just enjoying the slight summer breeze that was passing through, the sounds of the countryside hitting him and causing him a moment of peace as he relaxed. School had not been what he had expected but he suspected that he had met a few friends already, which was good. Clark was a good guy and both Chloe and Lois were great too and he felt that he had made a good start on making friends with them.

He had not had much chance to meet anyone else as of yet, but he felt sure that he would at the pre-season pep rally that has happening soon. The actual season for playing the game had not yet started and they were training, this pep rally was more about drumming up a little school spirit for the start of the year than anything else. Chloe had let him know when it all was and he fully intended on going to it. It would be his first taste of American culture, really, and he was quite looking forward to immersing himself in the school spirit and culture of the whole thing. The game seemed straight forward enough, though that wasn't really what interested him if he were honest, he just wanted to be involved in what everyone else considered to be a normal activity for students.

The crunching of tires on gravel and the sound of a large engine brought him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see a large panel van approaching him from the end of his drive. He stood up and dusted himself off; he would have to remember to either charm the porch clean or get out there with a broom on occasion. All in all he would probably just charm it to stay relatively clean. It was his house and home and by god he was going to use magic if he damn well wanted to, he could – if the need arose – use his mind abilities to remove memory of any accidental viewing of him performing magic. Luckily the Kent's were only visible as a house and it would take a pair of binoculars to see any detail from their barn.

The large van pulled to a stop and he signed off on the delivery and directed the team down into his basement. It took some serious juggling to get all the equipment in place and down the narrow steps and into the places he had envisioned. It was enough of a hassle that he gave the workmen all a coke or beer and a hefty tip for being so good with their help.

Needless to say they were more than happy and left Harry to explore his equipment. It wasn't like the magical equipment he had used at the school, but then it wasn't likely to be. So he would just have to make best use of it as he could. Now the equipment was in place and no one was likely to be coming down into his basement he could start work on the second half of his plan for the basement. Basically there was a walled off section with a good solid doorway that he was going to ward, expand and strengthen to use as his high magical area. No electrical equipment would be in that room and it would allow him to work on his magic without affecting the rest of the house. He had already started to remove the electrical wiring from the room and light it magically instead.

He went upstairs and got changed into some work out gear and went into his magical basement area. Then using his wand for a change he layered ward over ward and removed anything electrical in the entire place. Then he strengthened the walls and ceiling with magic and transfiguration struts before he was happy with the outcome. He conjured some targets to use, simple golems that would fight back at various levels and made sure they were strong enough to deal with his brand of magic. It was something he had learned to do at school for his practices so it didn't take long to do perfectly.

Once that was done he conjured a desk on the other side of the room with parchment, ink and quills. They really were better for working on anything magical due to their neutral status. Then he left the room, hid his wand back where he kept it, then went back to the exercise area and began to have a thorough work out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five – Rune**

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_Harry's House, Evening_

Harry walked up from his basement with a towel around his shoulders sweating heavily. He had found during his training that he was able to push his body very far and not suffer too much the following day. It had to be his magical nature and the fact that he was perhaps one of the most powerful magical users of this age helped with that a lot. He had also found out that he was able to boost himself using his magic which made him stronger and faster and quite a bit tougher which was useful during even a magical duel, since they were taxing not only on the magical core but the body as well. Without those tricks Harry wasn't sure he would have survived against Voldemort as well as he had done.

He walked into his living room to find, to his shock, that Marie was sitting in his lounge waiting for him. "Hello," he said his surprise lacing his tone. He was surprised that she had visited him alone for one and that she had just walked into his house for another. He wasn't upset by it, but it was unusual for the usually well mannered woman.

"Ahh, Harry; finally you have surfaced. I was waiting at the door for ages before I decided that you wouldn't mind if I just came in. You don't mind do you?"

"Of course not, would you like a drink," Harry asked walking towards his kitchen.

"Yes please," Marie said following him into the kitchen and smiling slightly. It still amused her to see this domestic side of Harry considering everything else she knew about him. She had spent some time talking with her husband since their dinner the other night and now fully supported his decision to emotionally adopt the young man. Harry had no family of his own in America, or really at all, and she didn't like that fact. Thus she had spent some time thinking of what she could do to help the young man out personally and had come up with a few things.

"Did you want to stay for dinner again, I was about to start it," Harry said.

"No thank you Harry, in fact I only popped in really to give you're a couple of things."

"I think you and Walt have both given me too much already," Harry noted with a tiny frown.

"I promise you that you will like this and it was hardly expensive, in fact they are keeping the price down on purpose."

That caught Harry's interest so he handed Marie her drink with a quizzical look in his eye which she smiled at and explained herself. "You will now know of the Internet I'm sure," she said.

"I've used it a few times now yeah, for the time being mostly to play this cool new game I'm becoming more than slightly addicted to." Harry admitted with a smile and a chuckle.

"That's good Harry, you need to have some fun I think, but this is more of a research tool than anything else." She walked out of the kitchen and returned moments later with a laptop bag and passed it to Harry.

"I already have an Intellitech Laptop Marie," Harry said taking the bag from her.

"Good, but this isn't a company laptop, in fact it's not strictly a laptop in the classical sense of a computer."

Harry looked at her confused by her words, so she explained herself a little, "Take a look while I talk." Harry pulled out the standard looking laptop and put it on the kitchen side and looked for the wiring. "There is no power supply as such." she told him, "That is not an electronic device exactly, well it is but its main basis is something called Technomancy. It's also one of a growing number of devices that is connected to MagiNet." Marie said watching as Harry looked surprised as the Laptop device booted instantly to a normal looking operating system though with odd looking icons on it. Even in his limited experience Harry knew that this was not a totally standard system he was playing with.

"This MagiNet console is one of the latest generation that I got from a young friend of mine called Jade Goodkind, she's one of the inventors of MagiNet and quite utterly brilliant. I told her a few minor details about your situation here, I hope you don't mind, and she was interested to have you as part of the online community."

"I don't mind at all, this sounds interesting. What can I do with it though?"

"Well the system itself has a lot of Technomancy specific programs running on it and I don't know much about them. Apparently this console comes preset with a chat program that will allow you to talk to Jade directly. She is interested in you because you straddle the line between worlds and she is particularly interested in finding out how you get along with the system. That and she wants to know if there are any devices that she could create that would make your life easier as you are mostly Mundane here."

"Well I'll contact her tonight if you like and talk with her," Harry said looking interested in doing just that.

"I would like that yes Harry, it will be good to see such intelligent young people working together to better magical society here in America," Marie said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Right… What else can it do?"

"Well, despite the old guard saying it was a horrendous thing to do, a team of wizards and witches has been buying up and urh what's it called scanning in books for about a year now? There's a long way to go but they have covered a huge variety of books already and there's about 50 books a day going up in a searchable way on MagiNet. So as a reference tool it's invaluable, though I have to admit I just use it for potions recipes I would imagine it would be very useful to someone like you that can spell weave."

Harry looked at her sharply, "How do you know that?"

"My husband and I share most information Harry, especially when I guessed who you are. Amusingly enough though he has made me sign the same blood contract he used to keep your secret. So don't fear that I will out you to the public."

"That's good to hear Marie; I'm surprised you knew who I was though."

"Albus Dumbledore is involved and someone called Harry needs to be expatriated, it doesn't take a genius to work out the details there Harry," she told him. "Luckily for you my husband and I are currently doing what we can to bury that information for good."

Harry nodded feeling slightly better about things, "My ability to spell weave isn't widely known though."

"It was thought that you may want to follow a career doing it in the US for a while, apparently."

"I don't know what the big deal is; it's mostly a mixture of runes and Arithmency anyway."

"A lot of what you can do is not normal Harry, you and I both know that. But that is beside the point. I just wanted you to have access to the latest magical technology, Walt has given you access to cutting edge mundane technology so I feel it is my duty as a witch to make sure you have access to the same in Wizarding."

"Thank you, how can I pay you two back?"

"Another dinner at some point wouldn't go amiss," Marie said with a grin.

_Smallville High - Day_

Harry walked onto the bleachers on the edges of the football field in time to watch the school team practice as he had been invited to do by Clark the day before. Thanks to an incident with one of the team trying to kill the new assistant coach Clark was now on the team himself and was full of the joy of football and hard to say no to. Harry needed to know more about the game for his article and he had decided to approach his article like an assignment from school. In other words, he needed to do his research, take notes, collate them and then write the assignment out until he was happy with it. Of course nowadays he could mentally take notes in such a way that he would never forget them or misquote thanks to occlumency and his assignment writing would be done on computer. This could take a while though because despite knowing his way around a system now, he could hardly type very well yet.

He took a seat on one of the bench seats and watched the practice for a while before movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. A very attractive brunette walked down the central isle of the bleacher and took a seat a few rows ahead of Harry. He had to admit he liked what he saw there; she was gorgeous with fine features that would draw just about any man's eye. That said there was something oddly lonely about her as well which didn't make sense considering her looks. She was likely to be rather popular to say the least. Something else was bothering him though, a sense of something familiar about her, something almost screaming of home. He reached out with all his senses and tried to grab a hold of the feeling to track it down. As he did so, his eyes wandered over the oddly familiar girl until he saw her lean forwards. Then he spotted a tattoo in a very interesting spot on her back, only visible for a flash of time. The trouble was that it was a familiar sight to Harry, from his previous schooling. What it was doing on the back of a Mundane… Harry's thoughts trailed off, that was what was familiar, she wasn't a mundane, there was just no way she was… She was putting out magical energy, quite a lot of it, and if he was any judge it was being cloaked a little as well which was almost worrying. He was no slouch in the area of magical energy and she was giving him a run for his money in terms of sheer potential.

He needed to know more about this girl, and he needed to talk to her about that rune on her back without coming off as creepy. He wasn't quite sure how he was going to manage that. He got up and walked over to her, "Excuse me."

A small sigh escaped the girl's mouth before she smiled at him, a very pretty smile covering mild annoyance. Her mind was not occluded but there was something half there and half not making her a difficult read other than surface thoughts. Anything else and he would be lost, "I don't wish to be rude, and I don't wish to sound creepy either," Harry said wanting to be honest with the woman as much as he could. "I wasn't checking you out or anything but I couldn't help but notice your tattoo."

That wasn't a good thing to say, something changed in her demeanor, she became defensive all of a sudden and her mind clouded over a little more. She lifted an eyebrow and looked at him steadily, "I see," she said obviously not keen to talk to him.

"Can I ask you, why you chose that particular symbol."

"Why?"

"It's rather unusual, I'm a bit of a student of languages," which was true he knew a few something he studied out of curiosity rather than anything else. That didn't cover why he knew the rune though, that he had learned from the teacher of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts from her donated skill bundle. She was probably one of the leading researchers of ancient runes in the modern world and now so was he. "To say that rune is rare is a wild understatement," he told her.

"Rune," she asked, suddenly looking a lot more interested in the conversation, "You know what this means?"

"I do," he told her, "I take it you don't." he said sounding almost disappointed. There was still the magical energy to sort out though; the girl definitely had a core of her own that rivaled his.

"No, I've been trying to find out for some time now."

"May I ask, why choose it then?"

"I didn't choose it," she admitted, "I don't actually remember how I got the tattoo. Can you tell me anything about the symbol?"

"I can actually, not a lot though, it's from a very rare set in a symbolic language that not a lot is known about. It's the rune for Transference or Water."

She looked worried about that answer, "Oh," she said.

"I realize I'm pushing the bounds a bit here, but do you mind if I ask how you got this on your back and if I research it a bit. I know a few sources that might have some other information."

She looked interested in that so he pressed on, "It's a field of interest for me and I sense that anything you can tell me might help me."

"All I remember was that I was in a church in France taking a rubbing from a tomb," she said, "Then I woke up with this."

"Odd," Harry said sounding calm and interested while inwardly wildly interested and a little worried. "Whose tomb was it can you remember."

"Countess Margaret Isobel Theroux," the girl answered.

"I'll see what I can dig up," Harry said then smacked himself in the forehead, "Sorry I've been so rude. I'm Harry Black by the way."

"I'm Lana, Lana Lang," she said shaking his hand politely.

"Right well sorry for bugging you," Harry said turning away.

"Wait," Lana said, "What else can you tell me about the symbol."

"The symbol not so much," Harry said turning back, "The language it's a part of a little more. Basically with most symbolic languages they are rather limited in what they can describe and they all vary quite a bit. Things like Ancient Norse, Sanskrit, or even Hieroglyphs have a limited alphabet and were used in a specific culture for a set period of time. The thing with this set is that multiple cultures have used it and the alphabet is actually larger than our own. Some headway has been made in translating it but not all the symbols. I probably know as much as anyone else in the world at this point to be honest and I would say that only 80% of the language has been figured out so far. So that's what caught my eye about your tattoo, so I hope you don't think me rude just coming up to you like that."

"No, I understand, thank you for telling me all that. I haven't been able to find all that much out about it myself."

"It's more a case of knowing where to look," Harry admitted to her. "I'll try to pull up some more information for you, but I know one other thing; that Symbol is part of a set of three called the Runes of Knowledge. That's all I have though, no real information on what the Runes of Knowledge are I'm afraid."

"Thank you Harry," Lana said with a much more genuine smile, this one almost a knee knocking beautiful one of gratitude.

Harry looked at her for a moment, "Look, I swear I'm not coming on to you but this is obviously bothering you, here." He passed her a card to his new PDA mobile, "That's my number, call if anything – odd – happens with that tattoo."

She looked at him quizzically for a moment, but then took the card and placed it in her jeans pocket. "Thanks Harry."

"Right, I'll leave you to it, I'm supposed to be writing up a report on football," he said with a charming smile. "For the Torch," he added and turned away again.

"You know Chloe," Lana said calling him back again. Something about the strange Brit kept making her stop him from leaving, she had a boyfriend she shouldn't be acting that way but there was an odd sort of attraction there and she couldn't put her finger on why. He was certainly good looking and looked to be well built, not like a footballer, more like a runner which wasn't her normal type, he did have a pair of startling eyes but there was something familiar about him she couldn't put her finger on.

"Yeah, she's my mentor and if I do this article correctly will be my editor," Harry said smiling again. "I made friends with her, Clark and Lois the other day actually."

"Ahh, you know them all then, they're all my friends as well. Apart from Lois I don't really know her very well."

Harry smiled, wondering how they had managed to get this far in a conversation from the awkward start he had initiated. "Would you like to sit with me while you watch," Lana said surprising herself.

"Urm – yes that would be nice thanks, hopefully you can explain some of what they are doing," Harry said chuckling slightly, "Clark filled in a lot but I've never seen it in action before."

Lana waved to the seat next to her, "No notebook," she asked.

"I have a good memory," Harry admitted taking a seat and looking back out, "Oh hello, here is Clark."

Clark walked up to them, "Lana Hi – What are you doing here? Hey Harry."

"I heard Smallville had a new starting Quarterback and just had to check it out," Lana said the lie, and it was obvious to Harry that it was a lie, tripping easily from her lips.

Clark beamed at her and then cast a slightly wary glance at Harry, "Making friends Harry?"

"I try to," Harry said slightly worried by the edge in Clarks tone, it was obvious the two had a history of some sort and he didn't want to tread on any toes.

"I found out Harry is a friend of yours and Chloe's while we were talking," Lana said by way of an explanation.

Clark nodded, and then turned as he was called back, the new assistant coach giving him the fish eye. Then again the man's attention seemed to be split between glaring at Clark and Harry. Harry though was more interested in watching the cheerleaders he had suspected of misdeed bringing a large drink cooler onto the pitch. Clark ran off towards the cooler himself while the various players all got a drink.

Clark though seemed to have some sort of reaction to the drink and ended up spitting out a large amount but was otherwise ignored. Harry noticed the coach talking to some of the players who looked at the ill looking Clark before going into a huddle.

Harry cocked his eyebrow at this interaction and then looked over at Lana's attractive profile, she was looking at the assistant coach herself but there was something in her eyes other than suspicion and a few connections were made in Harry's mind.

Despite what the Dursley's had told him over the years and as had been borne out over testing when he hit the country, Harry was _very_ intelligent. This had only improved when he had assimilated some skills and memories from two of the greatest minds of the time on either side of the line. So he was no slouch in making connections in logical order these days. It was obvious to him that something was going on with the new Assistant Coach and Lana. He didn't need his prodigious legimency skills to see the attraction Lana had for the coach, whose name was Teague if Harry remembered correctly, and from the glares sent his and Clark's way the feeling was obviously mutual.

A part of Harry should be in arms at that he was sure, Teague was a teacher in some respects and Lana a student and that sort of relationship was more than frowned upon. In England they had shut down schools for less and he was sure that it was no different in America. The thing of it was, to Harry, an adult was anyone that had reached the age of consent in regards to relationships and in England that was 16 so he was largely not too bothered. Other than that he was quite attracted to Lana himself of course, but then she was a beautiful girl so he was probably not alone in that regard.

He sat back and watched as break time ended and Clark proceeded to get the stuffing knocked out of him. That bothered him more than a little as the coach was obviously a little mean minded to take it out on Clark like that because he had been talking to his girlfriend. Then he caught the cheerleaders watching from the sidelines and revised his opinion slightly. There was more going on than simple jealously he was sure of it, they were too far away to surface scan but he just had a gut feeling. He could get closer especially if he played the reporter card, but it was fairly obvious the 'press' wasn't welcome on the sidelines.

He allowed his mind to wander a little and thought instead about the Rune on Lana's rather lovely back. He made sure to think more of the rune than the position. It was ancient, spread all over the world and that was more than a little unusual. It was thought in the Wizarding community that the runes could be the language of Atlantis that had disappeared almost before people had thought about writing histories. Harry's donor had thought the same thing, while Harry wasn't so sure. That was the thing with the Skill Bundle training system. He got the learning and the skill, even some of the talent involved but it was his own mind that used that information. It allowed him to draw his own conclusions from the information in his head and not be fixed to the donors. So while the Ancient Runes Professor was convinced of Atlantis, Harry was not. In fact most of the history he knew of pointed to a possible different source of the Atlantis myths.

Transference, Water, the meanings worried him. Water was a powerful force for life and transference could mean several things. Combine that with the fact he sensed a core of magic in Lana and it could mean just about anything. She seemed unaware that she had a magical core and he was wondering how to bring it up without ruining the statute of secrecy. Not that he was a huge fan of the statute in the first place. To his mind there was much the two different worlds could do for each other.

He refocused a little on the game and watched Clark being pummeled for a moment, it was petty and mean minded and made him dislike Teague almost instantly but there was more to this bullying than that, he was sure of it.

Harry now had a few mysteries on his hands and that made a smile come to his face.

"Something just made you happy," Lana said from beside him and caused him to look at her to find her looking at him with a twinkle in her eye. Even to Harry it was obvious she was quite attracted to him and that almost made him flush. He had to remember that he wasn't skinny and underfed Harry Potter here. He was Harry Black and that should come with a different him.

"I just realised that this isn't so different from home really," Harry said with a tiny bit of his smile remaining.

"Home, being England," Lana said.

"Yes, back at home there was always something happening to keep me busy and well it appears that it's the same here."

Lana looked thoughtful, "My tattoo," she said.

Harry nodded his head, "I do so love a mystery. I was always getting into mischief trying to solve them back at school," he told her.

"It's not a problem for you is it, I don't want to be a hassle."

"It's no hassle I assure you, in fact like I said I love a mystery."

Lana smiled relieved, "Chloe must like you then."

"I hope so; I'd like to think I've been making friends here."

"You have," Lana told him holding eye contact for a beat or two longer than might have been normal. She just couldn't shake the attraction she had for him; he had a very powerful aura about him. Even if she didn't know why, that did attract her to him. He smiled at her again that same charming smile he seemed to be using a lot of late and then she turned forcibly back to the practice game. She really didn't want to be having thoughts like that when she was already with someone, especially since that someone had followed her all the way from France.

Harry studied her for a second, admiring her profile then turned back to the game himself.

_Cafeteria_

Harry was sitting by himself, his laptop in front of him, typing up some of his thoughts into the word processor as he ate. Normally people weren't allowed to do such things but he had just smiled charmingly at the staff in the area and for some reason they had let him be.

"Hey English," a familiar voice said from off to the side.

"Hey …" Harry searched for a nickname, he could hardly let Lois get away with calling him a nickname when he didn't have one for her or the friendly battle of snark would be over before it started. He struggled for a moment with his limited knowledge of her and a word came out of his mouth before he had a chance to stop it, "Gorgeous," he said then blushed.

Lois shot him a small pleased smile, which also hinted that she was pleased he was blushing before placing her tray down next to him and looking over his shoulder, "What ya working on."

"My report for Chloe," Harry told her thanking god she hadn't taken offense at the nickname and now knowing he was going to have to keep using it or face a good teasing for letting his mouth run away from him.

She raised an eyebrow, "Finished that already?"

"God no, just putting some thoughts down. I have a word count limit I have to match so I'm knocking it out long hand while I think of a way to shorten it. I still have this pep rally thing they're holding at the pool to go to as well."

"You're actually going to that," Lois asked with an amused look on her face. "I'm not really into this school spirit thing. I'm just going to breeze on out of here as soon as I can get the stupid dean to return my calls."

"Well, that'd be a shame," Harry admitted, "I don't know many people here, it would be bad to lose one I do."

"Awww shucks," Lois mocked gently. "Missing little old me already, if you're lucky I'll invite you up to Metropolis and show you a real place to be."

"That'd be cool," Harry said smiling slightly. Then he saved off his document and looked around, "Where's Clark?"

"I think he went home after practice," Lois said with a disinterested shrug.

"Ahh, not surprised he took a pounding."

"Watched that did you?"

"All part of the research for my - what is it called – piece?"

"Check out the reporter man," Lois said with a grin, "down with the lingo."

Harry smirked at her, enjoying the bantering tone of their conversation. Oddly, despite the fact he had to be on guard around her because he knew she would tease him for any slip, he felt comfortable around Lois.

Just then a gaggle of cheerleaders walked past and he watched them go, reaching into their minds as they went passed.

"Hey, Earth to English," Lois said sounding annoyed.

"I'm not checking them out," Harry said.

"Could have fooled their boyfriends," Lois said pointing to a group of angry looking jocks.

"Shit," Harry commented at the almost murderous looks he was getting from various members of the football team.

"Hate to be you right now, but I did try to warn you."

"You did?"

"Didn't I?"

"Oh well, what they are going to do."

"Pummel you till you turn black and blue," Lois said with a grin, tinged with worry she wasn't much liking the looks they were shooting Harry either.

"I'd be willing to bet they won't," Harry said a hint of his true confidence in his abilities coming through.

"Uh huh, you keep telling yourself that. Just don't go anywhere alone for a while okay?"

Harry looked at her with a smirk, "Concerned Lois?"

"Nah, just don't want to get blood on my shoes."

_Later_

As it turned out, it didn't take long for the retribution from the football players to happen. Harry was walking down one of the lesser used corridors of the school towards the computer sciences department. One of the courses that he had elected to take on Walt's urging and suddenly he was faced with a wall of red and yellow.

"Can I help you gentlemen," Harry asked pleasantly even as his danger sense went to defcon one. Perhaps Lois had the right of it and he should not have gone anywhere alone. "Only I have class in a few minutes and I don't want to be late."

"We don't like you looking at our girls," one of the jocks said threateningly.

"Fair enough," Harry said trying to be reasonable. He scanned the minds of the players arrayed in front of him and noticed they were indeed ready to do him real damage. Also he read some memories of the day and wondered at the way they were acting around said girlfriends. He hadn't been a member of an American school for long but realised that football was big especially in Smallville. So it made no sense that some of the players in front of him were putting off practice and the like to spend time with their girlfriends. Harry's body seemed to relax slightly as he prepared himself for action.

The three men were all pretty large, but Harry had been trained to fight in a variety of ways including hand to hand if it came down to it. He was a little out of practice but unless one of the jocks was a black belt he felt he would have no problem defending against them. The problem lay in how hard to take them down. He had absolutely no wish to ruin Smallville High's chances in the local league by damaging some of their star players. Not only would it make him highly unpopular but it would likely drum him out of the school.

A fist whistling through the air cut off his thoughts as Harry stepped out of reach and slapped the hand as it passed. The jock in question spun slightly and fell into his compatriots staggering them all.

"I really don't want to fight you guys," Harry said, "You don't know what you're getting into here," he said the last in a warning tone.

"You're just a pansy ass Brit," the largest member said. If Harry was remembering his roster correctly he was facing Bret, Steve and Jake. Jake was the biggest of the bunch and would be the hardest to put down without hurting him, which was just brilliant because he was also one of the better players in the team.

"Look Jake, I'm not interested in your girlfriend," Harry tried as he ducked another punch, this one much closer than the last.

"Stay still and take it." Steve said as he grabbed for Harry.

Harry caught his reaching hand in a grab hold and twisted so Steve was suddenly at his mercy. He then kept Steve between himself and Jake and Bret.

"Coach also wanted us to tell you to stay away from Lana," Bret said his eyes holding great anger. It was too much anger for it to be completely natural. Harry didn't know much about highschool politics but he knew that a Jock would put down a threat easily enough, but they wouldn't show quite so much anger about it. It was as if Bret was totally enraged that someone might take his girlfriend away from him.

Keeping Steve mobile between himself and his attackers Harry reached out with a mind probe again and tried to find what was triggering Bret to be so angry. All he really found the further he went was a sort of green haze around his memories with his blonde girlfriend the only thing really in focus. Considering that Bret was also an 'all star' that wasn't right at all, Harry would anticipate that football would be his focus and the green was all wrong. Then it twigged in his mind that they were not playing with their full deck. Someone was drugging them in some fashion that Harry had yet to figure out. Then an image of the practice occurred to him and he watched the cheerleaders bringing out the cooler. It would be an excellent way to dope the players as they all used it every practice which happened daily.

Harry knew now that he didn't have a hope of doing this easily, he needed to put them out for the count and sort out whoever was doing the doping. Bret, Steve and Jake were essentially innocents in all this. He had a feeling he knew who to blame as well. It was entirely possible that Coach Teague was also doped too as he was reacting to a possible threat to his girlfriend by sending these lugs after Harry.

It was a sticky situation for Harry, he knew he could take them out easily enough through a variety of ways, but he needed to do it without being caught out. Magic was the best way of ending the fight without hurting the footballers, and he had no real need to hurt them. He suddenly forced Steve upright, the man was growling in frustration at being manhandled so easily, and then focusing his magic Harry punched Steve in the face sending a minor stunner into his fist as he did so.

Spinning around he nailed Bret with a spin kick that sent the guy into a locker and came around to nail Jake with another stunner punch. As Bret pulled himself from the locker Harry then nailed him in the same way. Looking around he made sure he wasn't being watched in any way before reaching over and obliviating the last few minutes from their minds.

He pulled them into a nearby empty classroom and put them in a heap together before walking out the door and into his class, just a minute or so late.

The entire class he was wondering what to do with this problem. He knew that the cheerleaders in question would be at the pep rally the next day so he could possibly get to them then. In the meantime he would have to watch himself around school as coach Teague had control over a lot of doped football players almost as keen to make him happy as they were their girlfriends.

The class eventually ended and Harry virtually ran out of school and jumped into his beloved car. He had no wish to hang around school as that would be precarious for him and driving helped him think in much the same way flying had.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six – Potion**

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_Harry's House, Evening_

Harry walked into his study looking for a way to cool off from a stressful day and let himself unwind for a while. He booted up the computer and started his favorite game. He had bought it the night before and was now enjoying the full benefits of membership and was looking forward to leveling his character up a little more. Out of the various levels available to him he hadn't gotten all that far yet, but he was already impressed at the imaginations of the people that had created the game.

As he worked through the various quests and killed imaginary monsters in the legendary world his character inhabited he allowed his mind to wander a little, thinking various thoughts as he did so. The game didn't yet take his full focus but it did direct his thoughts a little. So he thought about spells, and in particular the way he had used a stunner earlier that day. It wasn't the normal way to stun someone to put it mildly but it had been highly effective. It would leave them with some physical evidence that they had been in a fight, not that they would remember who with or why. They would just remember the green haze from before.

He hurled a fireball at a baby dragon on screen and thought about how cool it would be to be able to do that in real life. In effect it was an overpowered Incendio hurled at force across distance at a target.

Harry's lips pursed as he thought about that for a moment, due to his skill based learning he had become a spell weaver. They were relatively rare in the Wizarding world despite the fact that everyone used spells of one kind or another. Some were hired by the government, of course, to make new spells for various things. Luna's mother had been one in fact, before a spell she had been working on had killed her. Experimental spells were not the safest things in the world and when Luna had found out what he could do she had become very emotional and insisted that he be extremely careful with that particular skill.

Harry flicked his wrist out and looked at the ball of fire that appeared in his palm. Then back at the screen and sent a fire ball flying off towards a nearby critter. The fireball in his palm was much shorter and instantly cast unlike the game. The game though required limitations whereas the real world had some built in, though not very many of them applied to the field of magical science.

Harry clenched his hand, extinguishing the fireball and looked at the screen again, before logging out with a thoughtful look on his face. He got up and walked downstairs into his basement and then into his magical room and sealed the doors.

He gave the problem a great deal of thought before walking to his desk and hammering out some arithmency. Then a little rune work to help him come up with a conjuration and he was set to try something crazy.

He got up, fetched his wand from a nearby shelf and pointed it down towards the targets at one end of the room.

He performed the wand movements he had worked out and then intoned, "Incendia" in a strong and clear tone of voice.

A large ball of flame appeared on the tip of his wand and fired off down the range with a great amount of speed before splashing against the golem, making it explode into smithereens.

"Whoa," Harry said a grin on his face. Now all he had to do was cast it a few dozen more times before working on a silent casting method. Then he could move to a wandless one and then he could cast fireballs like his mage in the game. In all honesty as it stood he could see no real reason why he would ever need that spell, but if he got into magical combat at some point it would shock the hell out of another wizard to find that coming at them. It would also be a good idea for removing cover.

He conjured another golem and waved his wand, keeping the pattern much smaller this time and whispered, "Incendia." The effect was the same again, as he had made sure to channel the same amount of magic. The golem was destroyed in a spectacular manner and a grin spread across Harry's face. He repeatedly conjured golems all over the place in the room and destroyed them with his Incendia spell until he could do so silently. The heat in the room was steadily rising from all the fire he was throwing around but Harry barely noticed. Creating spells was a fun thing for him to do, especially considering the amount of combat he used to get into. Sending something unknown at an enemy was always a challenge to do without delving into ancient dark magic so creating spells of your own was the best way.

He placed his wand back on the shelf and conjured a lot more golems, this time wandlessly. He knew having a wand was very odd in the mundane world and the less he could come to rely on one the better. He was rather skilled at wandless magic already but if he could become even better at it there was no reason why he would need to have a wand unless it was during the creation process.

The movements of a spell and the incantation used where, in effect, a trigger to making magic do as you willed it to. Going without a wand meant you had to know how the magic felt for a particular spell, for the most part. Intent was also a big part of the picture and being able to focus your mind like that was not something that was easy to come by. Occlumency helped in that regard but it wasn't the be all and end all of the process. Luckily Dumbledore himself had gotten Harry up to speed on the process with both Skill Bundle based learning and practical tuition from the great man himself.

Harry raised his hand and incanted, "Incendia" in a firm tone growling when nothing happened other than his hand seemed to get warmer.

"Incendia," he tried again, this time pouring on the intent based focus and magic as well. A wand wasn't just a focus it was also a bit of a magnifier so it helped the user perform a powerful spell without using so much personal power themselves. Harry had forgotten to allow for that and so poured on the power.

A large ball of fire appeared in his hand and suddenly took off like a rocket down the range destroying at least three golems.

Rolling his eyes and brushing some sweat from his face Harry tried again, keeping a better control on how much magic he was putting into the spell. This time a good sized ball of fire was sent careening down the range to destroy only a single golem.

Then Harry practiced for half an hour dropping the incantation halfway through, he found he was able to control how big the fireball was as well and could, with aim, deliver a heart shot just as easily as he could one that would utterly destroy something.

Sweating like crazy Harry stopped what he was doing and went upstairs for a shower.

Half an hour later he was sitting on his couch with the MagiNet console in front of him researching spells to make sure he was the only one that had created such a destructive fire spell. Oddly enough it seemed he was the closest in function was a flame thrower spell but nothing that threw the fireball at the target.

He toyed with the web like interface of MagiNet for a while before thinking of a good way to test the information found there. Then he brought his hands to the keyboard, logged into the research search engine and typed, "Countess Margaret Isobel Theroux," into it and drummed his fingers as the magical search engine went to work. Several articles appeared along with the book they had come from. He clicked on an entry from a Wizarding history book and read the information with a growing sense of dread. The countess wasn't a dark witch as such but she wasn't good news by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, she wasn't dark the same way he wasn't. Neither of them preferred dark spells to do their talking for them but neither did they stop using them if a need arose.

During his war with Voldemort Harry had crossed the line between light and dark a few times, only pulling back because of his friends. That was even with the training he had gotten from Dumbledore and his donors. Voldemort was just such an evil man and his followers almost as bad it was hard to stay away from the dark when fighting them.

From what he was reading Harry decided that the Countess had her own obsessions and battles to fight and had gone much the same way he had. He classified himself as light Grey, whereas he might classify her as dark Grey.

She was born in Castelnois de Montmiral, in France during the 17th century and was one of the few actual witches to be caught up in the Witch Burnings. He had no idea why she had been caught as it was obvious just from reading about her that it was unlikely she lacked the power to get away. She had died in 1604 by burning, one of the worst ways to go and at the time had given a prophesy of her return via a descendant.

Worried Harry grabbed his console and walked to the kitchen counter where his laptop currently resided. He booted it up drumming his fingers as he waited for it to do so. Then logged onto the net and tried to think of what to find and where to find it. One of the things shown to him during his training was a lineage site where you could look up your family tree. So Harry started there, logging on to a fresh account. It had done a fair job of tracking his family despite their magical nature due to the fact that even wizards had weddings, registered births on both sides of the line and other database worthy information. So he was hoping this would work out the same. He opened a new browser window and sent it in the direction of Smallville High's intranet and logged on with his student ID. He looked up Lana's details, knowing full well that would be logged. He got her full name and birth details and put them into the website he had standing ready and used what little he had found on the intranet site to fill out the forms on the internet site.

It was slow going for a while as he searched through possibilities until he finally found the line he was looking for and then started to trace it back as far as the records went.

All in all it took him two hours of hard work before he frowned at the screen and walked back to his lounge with the console under his arm. He placed it on the coffee table and looked at the search results again. He chose a different book, and this one had a picture with it. Which would have saved him an awful lot of time had he just gone there instead. Lana was a dead ringer for her many-many times removed grandmother.

Harry sat back in his chair wondering what to do about this information. On one hand he could go to Lana and have it out with her, warn her and perhaps try to remove whatever fragment of the Countess there was in Lana. That had a few advantages. Because of Voldemort, in fact, Harry knew of a few ways to keep lodged in the physical realm. They had eventually found out why Voldemort had been so hard to kill and what had kept him alive. Finding the pieces of his soul known a horcruxes had taken two years and some dangerous travel but they had done it. Then they had found the one in Harry himself and a major research session had started.

In the end they had split out the remaining soul fragment from Harry's head and that had been what had prompted Voldemort to attack in his seventh year of Hogwarts. Despite absorbing most of the fragment, i.e. all the memories and knowledge Harry had retained the actual soul fragment in his scar. So they had needed to find a spell that could split out a soul. Oddly enough it was part of the spell used to create a horcrux that had helped them in the end. After all you needed to split your soul in order to create one. It had taken work but now Harry knew he would be able to remove whatever fragment of the Countess that existed in Lana. Explaining that to her and doing the highly complex spell at the same time would be tricky to say the least, the fact was that doing so while the fragment was dormant could also be problematic as well.

For one thing it might not take kindly to being removed and kill Lana.

It might also explain the runic tattoo that Lana had as well, in fact the rune could be what was tying the Countess to the physical realm, and Lana in specific.

Harry ran a hand through his hair in frustration, he didn't know what to do and that was rare. He was an always in action kind of man and that lent him to following his thoughts quickly after having them, constantly in motion all the time and now he was stuck on something and he didn't like it. He didn't owe Lana any special consideration or anything, but at the same time felt that they had some sort of connection between the two of them. Especially with her being some sort of wild talent witch from what he had seen of her magical core.

He sat back in his chair while gripping his hair again making it stick up at all angles. He let out a huff of frustration and crossed his legs. At least he had some information to give her now and when he saw her he was going to put some safe guards on her to keep an eye on her state, as well. That was all he could do for the moment, until he could get her alone to cast some spells on her. Or, on the off chance that she suddenly became the Countess, then he might be able to get some answers from the woman herself.

He got up suddenly and prowled around his living room before letting out a sigh, he needed some fresh air or something. He walked to his back door, the one he tended to keep warded but open all the time and focused his energies while drawing in a breath. Then he stepped out into the night and jumped.

This might seem like a highly odd thing to do unless you're able to turn into a raven halfway through the jump and take to the air; his wings beat a few times lifting him into the air. He hadn't had a chance to fly for a while now and it always exhilarated him to do so, as well as centering him.

It still wasn't clear why or how it had happened, though it was suspected that it was the fault of his donors but Harry was a multiple animagus. Several of the people that had donated skills to him had been animagi and that might have been the cause for his multi nature. Apparently he was the first in a long time, as in over two thousand years but Harry had shrugged that off. He was so used to being weird by most people's standards by that point it no longer bothered him.

He rose a fair way into the sky so he could barely see his house anymore, at the very limit of how high this form could go and then folded his wings behind him and dived. He was no falcon but he had found he could get a fair speed up by diving in such a way. Though he couldn't pull out of a dive the same way a falcon could.

He pulled out of the dive well above his house and drifted towards the Kent farm. He then floated to a standstill in front of an impressively sized Cockerel that was eyeing him suspiciously.

"Stop making a racket in the morning," raven Harry said in bird language. Thanks to his various forms he had found that most creatures had their own language and various members of the species understood well enough.

"It is my duty to wake the farm," the cockerel said puffing out its chest.

Harry let out a sigh and did a bird like shrug, "Worth a try," he said before beating his wings and taking flight again, off into the night.

_The Next Day, Smallville High_

"Have you seen Chloe," Harry asked, walking into the Torch and smiling at Lois as he did so.

"No – have you – because she ain't acting right at all," Lois said with a frustrated huff.

"Urm no, that's why I was asking you, and what do you mean?"

"She quit the Torch," Lois said, "and left me in charge."

Now Harry didn't know them all very well yet but that was definitely weird for Chloe and the fact that she had left Lois in charge was worryingly odd all by itself. "Riiight," Harry said drawing out the word, "Why?"

"She says that Clark needs her support," Lois said rolling her eyes, "Like Smallville even notices she's interested."

"She's interested in Clark," Harry asked perking up, "I figured he was interested in Lana."

"Shhh, I didn't tell you that," Lois said looking worried that she had put her foot in it.

She had, but Harry wasn't going to call her on it. "This is freaky, have you noticed that the football players are acting odd as well," Harry asked.

Just then Clark walked into the room, "You!" Lois virtually snarled.

Clark did a double take, "What? Hey – where's Chloe?"

"This is all your fault," Lois told him slapping a file into his chest, "So you can deal with the fall out for it."

"What?"

"What Lois means is that urh – well have you noticed anything odd lately?"

"Yeah, actually," Clark said, "Football players being overly attentive to their girlfriends and Coach Teague seems to suddenly have it in for me – which is weird because I saved his life not long ago."

Harry was leaving that hot potato alone as if his life depended on it. "I think the cheerleaders are doping the football players. I had a bit of an altercation with some of them yesterday and they weren't being reasonable."

"Oh no," Lois said looking him over, "You don't look black and blue."

"I did say I wouldn't be now didn't I Gorgeous?" Harry said with a slightly flirtatious smile, and then went back to business as Lois smirked at him, "Chloe may also have gone to the dark side."

"Dark side," Clark asked thoroughly confused.

"She's your own personal cheer squad," Lois explained to the now weirded out looking Clark. "She quit the Torch to root for you."

Clark looked shocked, "She did what?" Then he shook himself, "Look, I've got practice again today, but you guys let me know if you find anything. In the meantime I'll keep an eye on my team mates."

"Try not to be pummeled today," Harry said with a grin.

Clark glowered at him, "Like I said I think the Coach doesn't like me for some reason." With that he left them behind to hurry to practice.

Lois looked at Harry; Harry looked at Lois, "So cheerleaders."

Lois made a face, "You're obsessed, get a new hobby."

"No, I'm telling you they are up to something, and let's face it they are the beneficiary of the footballer's attentions."

"Okay, you might have a point there," Lois admitted.

"What do we do about it then," Harry asked.

"Leave that up to me, I don't think you want the football players after you anymore than they already are. In fact, I would stay away from that pool party too."

"I need to go to that for my piece," Harry protested.

"It's your life English," Lois said with a shrug. "Besides I think if the need arises that I can get Clark to go to the party instead. He at least isn't disliked by every member of the football team with a cheerleader girlfriend."

"No they just pummeled him on the field because the coach doesn't like him," Harry pointed out.

Lois rolled her eyes, "Just be careful okay. Like I said I really don't want blood on my shoes."

Harry smirked at her and looked down at her shoes, "It would be a shame to ruin them," he noted and then walked out of the door leaving a smirking Lois behind him.

_Pool Party, Later_

Harry slipped into the pool area after dark and looked around. He had briefly met up with Lois earlier in the day and had been brought up to date. Clark was going to the party, the cheerleaders had discovered the "love molecule," and Clark was investigating by pretending to be interested in one of the main trouble makers.

Harry had been unilaterally ousted from joining in the fun of the final investigation but that wasn't about to stop him from having a sneaky look for himself. For one thing he needed to find out a bit about the party so he could report on it and for another he wanted to have his friend's backs should anything go wrong.

Clark seemed to be doing okay but he had an air of competency about him that Harry would not have expected a Kansas farm boy to have in all honesty. It wasn't that Harry was underestimating the man; it was more than he only expected that level of ability from those that had been trained by him, fought with him or fought against him in the past. Clark appeared to be that competent and that worried Harry a little. It made him wonder why that would be the case. He knew from reading a few minds that Clark always seemed to be the center of disaster around the town for some reason and had always managed to pull various peoples fat out of the fire, notably Chloe, Lana and recently Lois too.

It made Harry wonder just how he was able to do that when most of the town repressed the information on meteor freaks, as Chloe thought of them.

Harry heard a growl behind him, a very human growl but it wasn't the sort of thing he liked to hear at any point and came face to face with Bret from the other day. "Hey Bret," Harry said, "Any chance of getting some quotes for the Torch?"

"Sure, how about 'die', and 'squashed like a bug,'" Bret put forth, his eyes once again enraged. With a quick scan Harry was able to see Bret didn't understand what had happened the other day but still blamed Harry for it even if he couldn't remember it. The potion was working overtime on the guy that was for sure.

Harry looked around, he was in a fairly secluded area with no one but he and Bret to see what he was about to do, "Goodnight Bret," Harry said and fired a stunner at the football player, who crumbled to the ground. This had to end tonight, and if he took the next day off, which he could since he had no classes, it was likely that Bret and the others would put it behind them and Harry would be back on their good sides again; though it would be best if he stayed the hell away from cheerleaders in future. This was fine by Harry if he were honest with himself. Eyeing up their bodies was all well and fine, but proving to be more trouble than it was worth.

Harry pulled the unconscious player to the side, off the beaten track and hid him away, quickly erasing the last few minutes from his mind. He turned back just in time to see the blonde ringleader cheerleader talking to a group of football players who looked angry and set to cause some problems. With a quick look around, Harry was utterly unable to see Clark or any of his other friends.

He set his shoulders, whispered, "Verus ex os" which was the special true invisibility spell and faded from sight. He silenced his footsteps and breathing and quickly followed the footballers. He was only going to get involved if something really nasty started to happen, and only reveal himself if he had to.

The true invisibility spell was a spell with great advantage over traditional methods but it did have some disadvantages to it. While it was much easier to use than his cloak it could only be used by someone with a fair amount of power. It was total invisibility unlike a disillusionment spell but took a few seconds to drop during which time a skilled dueler could get the drop on you. It did however allow you to cast spells under it, but obviously the spell fire gave your position away.

Harry wasn't too concerned about that at the moment though and just followed the cheerleaders and football players. Football players were semi dangerous opponents to those who weren't trained in combat because of their size and speed. A typical football player trains to be fast and is usually quite large which makes them less susceptible to sheer force than most other people. Harry though was trained to within a inch of his life in combat and, while he had a slender build, through judicious use of magic and training he was just as powerful as they were and twice as fast at the least.

They walked to behind the pool proper to the boiler rooms of the school and then to a locked room. They entered to find Lois, Clark and Chloe in the room with Lois cursing up a storm. Chloe looked to be out of her temporary insanity as well but looking slightly confused while Clark was quite calmly assessing the football players.

This interested Harry quite a bit actually but that would have to wait.

Lois made a comment about bringing it on and the football players made a move towards her. Harry rather liked her face the way it was, as it was rather attractive to look at, and had no intention of letting them rearrange it. He had a sense that she could look after herself but he wasn't going to let it get that far. Still invisible he struck out just as the pipe above them suddenly and without reason burst.

"How the hell," Lois commented looking at the pipe and the downed football players even as Harry was already hightailing it out of the room.

Clark just shrugged, "Bad piping?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven – Portal**

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_Harry's House, The next Day_

Harry looked at the bubbling tubes arrayed around the magically protected basement and then back at the paper he had swiped from Lois' bag the evening before. He had managed to grab not only that but the rest of the potion as well.

During his 'training' the one person utterly unwilling to give him a skill bundle had been Severus Snape. This was largely due to the man's hatred of Harry's father, and Harry himself of course, but luckily that didn't matter one jot. There were two ranks above Potions Master in the realm of potions and they were Alchemist and Master Alchemist. Dumbledore was an Alchemist and Nicholas Flamel was a Master Alchemist and Harry had skill bundles from both of them. So thanks to Snape's petty nature Harry had a far better education in potions than he would have gotten if he had just coughed up some skill bundles. Dumbledore had wanted Harry to have the best education possible for after the battle as well as for the battle.

It still gave Harry a warm feeling that Albus had cared enough to think of after the battle for him rather than just focusing on the war effort.

It did mean that, while he wasn't able to properly equate the chemical formulae that the cheerleaders had put forth for their assignment, he could do the next best thing and break it down to its component parts. He already knew, thanks to the conversation with Clark and Lois the day before, that it had Meteor rock in it. This interested him on several levels. The cheerleaders had been unable to make the potion work until they had put the rock in. The rocks apparently affected some people in the area giving them special powers and the rocks appeared to have an adverse effect on Clark given how he had looked after drinking the potion. He had not become anymore obsessed than he already was with the object of his desires and had only seemed to become ill instead. This didn't add up with the other behavior that Harry had seen from the other imbibers of the potion at all.

Harry was staying home from school on purpose that day to let the potion come out of the footballers systems before he showed his face in school again. Then he could hand in his quite complimentary report and hope things would be cool between him and the team. Harry had no wish to make an enemy in the school at all, especially with a group as politically powerful as the football team. Even if it was just school politics he was dealing with for a change.

He looked at the equipment around him and let out a sigh, it would take a while for that to work properly and do its job to his satisfaction. He had gone all the way to New York's magical community to get all the gear and was feeling quite tired from the journey. Apparition across state lines like that was not the easiest thing in the world and if not for his personal power Harry doubted he could have done it at all, and he had done it both ways. What he needed was an easier way to get around.

Once more his mind turned towards the game he had been playing of late. His character had just learned how to make portals from place to place. In the game they were set to specific locations. This was obviously a ploy to make things limited in the game to control the environment. If he could duplicate the spell as he had done with the fireball spell Harry suspected that he would be able to portal to any location as long as he had been there.

With that in mind he decided that this one was going to take a horrendous amount of number crunching. To that end he walked upstairs and grabbed his MagiNet Console. On it, he knew from experimentation, were several special arithmancy programs that he could use to crunch the numbers for him while he worked on something else.

He turned it on, it booted instantly something he wished his laptop did, and then he loaded the correct program and input the details required to make it do the work for him. Then he tapped his fingers thinking of what else he could do to keep his mind occupied.

Suddenly a message client came to life and a message appeared.

_**Jade**_: Hello Harry Black, I'm Jade Goodkind. I think Marie mentioned that I would contact you.

_**HarryBlack**_: Hi there, yes she did. Nice to urm – meet you.

_**Jade**_: I just wanted to check to see how you're getting along with the console and see what you're using it for?

_**HarryBlack**_: I've used MagiNet for researching a historical figure and a spell so far. Currently I'm using it to crunch some arithmancy for me. Did Marie mention that I'm a Spell Weaver?

_**Jade**_: No she didn't, that's amazing and just the sort of thing we need to test. How's it running so far?

_**HarryBlack**_: Seems okay so far, it's still in action at the moment. I suspect that it will take a long time to crunch the numbers on this spell.

_**Jade**_: Can I ask what spell you're creating?

_**HarryBlack**_: Sorry, can't tell you that. Spell Weavers Code ya know?

_**Jade**_: Fair enough, can you try to create some spells for me at some point?

_**HarryBlack**_: I can; normally I would charge for that, but since I got this console free I'll do you a few on the house Just tell me what you need and I'll try my best. Not everything can be solved with a single spell, or a combination, some things are not possible even with magic.

_**Jade**_: I'm not sure this will be, but first I need a promise from you that what I ask for will be kept a secret.

_**HarryBlack**_: Sounds ominous.

_**Jade**_: Nothing totally illegal, but it does brush the Statue of Secrecy a little.

_**HarryBlack**_: Tell me what you want and I'll say yes or no, either way I won't tell a soul.

_**Jade**_: I need some spells that will work with technology. We, and I mean my partners and I, want to create a few spells that the average Witch/Wizard can use in the mundane world to make their lives easier as you probably know. It's sort of our mission statement. I seem to remember you are from England right?

_**HarryBlack**_: That's right, yeah.

_**Jade**_: Well, over here things are much more integrated. Even the average Joe Wizard knows a little about technology and uses it from time to time. We need several spells that can be 'safely' used on technology. Things like locking a computer totally from outside influence. We would also like one that would allow a normal computer to connect to MagiNet.

_**HarryBlack**_: Mixing magic and electricity is tricky, very tricky, but I think I might be able to do the first, which would be two spells in effect. Lock and unlock. The second though I'm afraid I have no idea how it could be done I would need to know a LOT more about how MagiNet works.

_**Jade**_: That would take signing some blood contracts.

_**HarryBlack**_: I have no problem with that in theory. I've not got loads of time just at the moment though and I have school as well of course.

_**Jade**_: You're still in school and can Spell Weave?

_**HarryBlack**_: Muggle school actually.

_**Jade**_: Right, well, okay – we're based in San Francisco can you get the weekend off to come and see us sometime are you close?

_**HarryBlack**_: No, not close; I'm not in San Francisco but I might be able to apparate to you if you give me co-ordinates.

_**Jade**_: From where?

_**HarryBlack**_: Kansas.

_**Jade**_: Shit, okay I'll get you some sent over, not got Floo yet then?

_**HarryBlack**_: Unfortunately not, it's taking forever for them to come around and set it up for me.

_**Jade**_: I'll see what I can do my end to speed things up a little for you. Despite the fact we're controversial we're pretty powerful already.

_**HarryBlack**_: Need investment?

_**Jade**_: Always, but if you're in school I doubt you can help us.

_**HarryBlack**_: What is the magical currency here?

_**Jade**_: Still dollars, no need to have two.

_**HarryBlack**_: Then I would like to check you out and then maybe buy a few shares.

_**Jade**_: Every bit helps.

_**HarryBlack**_: Oh hey it's crunched the first part of the spell already – that's impressive that would have taken me three solid days of work on paper.

_**Jade**_: It's a powerful computer as well as a way to connect to MagiNet.

_**HarryBlack**_: Well I expect you're busy so I better not keep you. I'll contact you with a spell for the first thing you wanted in about a week or so. I need to get a load of old computers to try it on first.

_**Jade**_: Okay Harry – can I call you Harry?

_**HarryBlack**_: Only if I can call you Jade

_**Jade: **_Of course, see ya.

_**HarryBlack: **_Bye.

Harry closed the message window slightly impressed with this new communication method. Then he walked out of the room, leaving the console to work, and up into his living room where he had left his precious PDA/phone.

He quickly dialed a number and waited for it to be picked up, "Walt," Harry said by way of greeting.

"Harry, how are you – not heard from you in a couple of days."

"Not bad, had some fun here with a love potion of all things but other than that it's peaceful."

"A love potion in the mundane world," Walt asked sounding shocked.

Harry smiled, "Yep – I'm looking at it now to find out how worried we need to be, if at all, nothing magical about it as far as I can tell so far though. It might even be useful if I can do some comparison work."

"You're a potions master as well?"

"Urm – no, Master Alchemist actually, I was really given a lot of training during school," Harry said flushing slightly. He was aware that he was ridiculously powerful and trained beyond normal and beyond even weird for most people. In his head he had the wealth of knowledge from the collective Hogwarts staff, the headmaster and a few of his most trusted friends. It was almost surreal what Harry knew and he was determined, now that the war was over, to give something back to the world if he could. It was true that his life had not started out well, but it had gotten significantly better over the years mostly due to a somewhat manipulative headmaster. If Albus Dumbledore had not been light sided the world would have been in real trouble and Harry would likely be the most evil man on the face of the planet, luckily he was light sided.

"Good grief," Walt mumbled, "Well what can I do for you – only I have a meeting in about 15 minutes."

"That's no worry, I can call back if you like."

"No that's okay as long as we don't go over 10 minutes so I have time to get there," Walt told him.

"No this is easy really, I think I want to put some serious money into Jade Goodkind's business, I have no idea of the name but I know their mission statement and I like it a lot."

"Talked to her finally did you?"

"Why do I suddenly get the feeling this was set up in some way."

"Jade is Marie's god daughter," Walt admitted.

"Ahh," Harry said with a sagely nod, "Marie wanted me to help Jade out?"

"Not exactly, but I'll leave that side of the scheme to Marie."

"I don't do blind dates," Harry said quickly reading where that was going in a flash.

Walt chuckled, "It's easier to give in now Harry, Marie never lets up when she has her mind set on something. Jade is a very pretty girl actually, but I digress. How much did you want to invest?"

"A lot if you think they are for real," Harry said, "Not a controlling interest but close to it."

"Why so much," Walt asked.

"I really want my money to do good things Walt, I'm not against making lots for myself either but the more I get the more I have to use for the betterment of people. I've been lucky in life, recently, and I want to give something back. This seems like a good way of doing that. Jade's company looks to be pushing back the boundaries between magic and technology as well and that really interests me."

"It's a fascinating piece of work the MagiNet Console, mostly a computer built out of magical components," Walt told him, "If you get a chance to get the tour of them making one take it."

"I've got an offer to find out the specifics, they need some spell weaving done – I can't tell you what obviously. I do have a question, for you, considering your specialty."

"Need a computer?"

"Something tells me you know more than you let on, but I actually need a lot of computers, preferably working but old enough not to cost me an arm and a leg if I ruin them."

"I know one of the things she wants Harry, she already made me sign the contract when I went on the tour. But it stops me from talking about it with you at the moment so I guess you have not signed yet."

"Not yet," Harry admitted, "Can you set that up for me."

"Of course, you're lucky this is America or a squib would have no hope of doing that sort of thing."

"Well you're married to a witch," Harry said with a chuckle, "So you're the lucky one that wouldn't be allowed in England."

"Disgusting really, isn't it," Walt said a frown in his voice.

"Something to fight later on," Harry said. "I've learned to pick my fights and when to fight them. I want that to change but it's a long way off."

"Anyway, time is short, Harry, I'll get all that moving for you after my meeting. I'm also going to set up a better communication system between us at some point. You keep catching me on the way to meetings. Perhaps through my secretary or something for the little stuff; she can forward you to me if the need arises."

"Okay Walt, whatever is easier for you," Harry said.

"Either way I'll call you later Harry," Walt said and shut down the connection.

Harry closed the phone and placed it in the kitchen on its charger before walking back into his magical basement area. He was surprised to see that the arithmancy program had finished its run and was beeping at him with a flashing box saying it was done.

Considering all the things he wanted built into the spell it was an awesome display of computing power. He almost hoped this program wasn't going to catch on too much or the art of spell weaving could go the way of the dodo. Of course there was a way of thinking behind the weaving as well as an innate knowledge of magic that was required to create spells. In their last year of Arithmancy all students of Hogwarts were taught to create a simple spell themselves, but it was always an awfully simple spell.

Whereas the spell, or the two spells, that Harry was creating were extremely complex. They combined several other concepts of spells including apparition though it didn't use the same method of travel. It would also take considerable mental accuracy to cast the spell, the sort that came from a level of occlumency training few aspired to. Harry had it, Dumbledore had it and, oddly enough, Voldemort and perhaps Severus Snape had that type of skill, but Harry knew of no others. There was one other that could do it, only because he was light years ahead of the previously mentioned names and that was Nicholas Flamel and he had something like 500 years of practice. Then there was the worm-hole creation part of the spell and the portal itself to think of and a host of other details that would stop Harry from coming out the other side a different shape. The amount of error checking he had built in was staggering, which made the Console all the more impressive to Harry.

He walked to one side of the room and really focused on it, taking in every single stationary detail he could. Then he walked to the other side of the room and did the same thing, placing it with utmost clarity into his mind.

Then he walked over to the console and started work on the runic translations. He needed this step to find the incantation for the spell. Basically it was a combination of language and mathematics that almost staggered the mind and was probably the one part that couldn't be done by a computer as yet.

He worked for about three hours straight before he had two incantations. Oddly enough this particular spell had no wand movements, but then he had designed it to be a wandless spell in the first place rather than a spell he learned to cast wandlessly. Rather like the more traditional Apparition spell itself, which was also wandless, unlike that spell though it wasn't strictly an internal spell either. It took a fair build up of magic to cast it and in total Harry considered it would probably take him about a minute to cast to start with. After practice he hoped to get that down to as close to instant as he could, in the meantime though he had to learn how to focus the energies required by the spell. For a while he suspected that he would be the only person on the planet able to use it.

Once he had the incantations he walked to the first point in the room and conjured several odd items; some he could use to test their integrity after the transfer and others would measure the room magically for him and some were just wood, plastic and other types of basic materials. This was an important step in this spells creation and Harry knew he could not do his usual and just jump in himself. He could well come out the other side a different shape, or species.

Harry concentrated on building the energy for the spell, building it slowly so he could really focus on the feeling and then cast, "Patefacio Prodigium." The flow of power out of him was within expected tolerances so he was pleased, but he had to keep his focus for the full minute it took for the portal to open. A shimmering portal appeared in front of him, black and purple swirling together against what looked like a starry sky of all things. He looked at it for a long moment noticing that it appeared to be totally stable. This was good as he had put the utmost thought into the creation of the spell, had it not worked it would have been back to the drawing board for more than just the portal. If he had failed it would mean a new way of thinking about the problem from the very conception and onwards.

He sent the first item through, which was essentially a magical recorder. It flew through unhindered making the portal seem to shimmer a little more. Then across the other side of the room the target portal opened and deposited the recorder out the other side. Leaving the portal open Harry walked across the room and picked up the recorder going over the readings carefully. Oddly it had recorded absolutely nothing at all and had appeared instantly. He grabbed his wand and ran some diagnostic charms over the item and found that it appeared to be in perfect working order.

Just in case he took his wand and conjured another recorder and went back to the portal and sent it through. It could be his wandless conjuration had messed things up though he doubted that. He sent it through to much the same result as before and the same readings. This was interesting he had not concentrated too much on the actual worm-hole itself and it appeared that it was a null one, meaning that it travelled through a null dimension of some sort. There was nothing for the recorder to record so it hadn't had the chance to do its job.

Harry walked to the entrance again and started to send his other items through. Then when he had finished he took extensive readings from the room, and then closed the portal with a "Termino," and did the same thing again. Nothing had changed other than the ambient magic had gone up fractionally.

He walked over to his various items and diagnosed them as well and was pleased to see that they too had not been changed, though the temperature on each was a few degrees cooler than before. Even the packet of flesh he had created was fine, though it was a simple form of flesh. The real test would be, of course, him entering the portal himself.

Taking a deep breath Harry walked to a different point and began the cast again, "Patefacio Prodigium," he intoned this time in a mere whisper and felt the energies flow out of him for about 60 seconds before the portal was in front of him. He squared his shoulders, took a hell of a lot of readings on himself and then stepped through the portal only to appear the other side of the room an instant later. Nothing had registered in the journey at all and to him it had appeared to be instant. "Termino," he cast and the portal closed behind him.

He took more readings and found the same results as before, and his shoulders sagged in relief; he had been worried there for a minute. Now all he had to do was lower the casting time, it would be useless in a battle situation for it not to be an instant cast spell. Assuming that he ever used it in combat, but then the way his life went it was quite likely that he would.

He put his wand back on its shelf and went to work.

_Harry's House, Evening_

Harry flopped down into his chair with a big grin on his face. He'd done it, it had taken an entire day, but he had done it. Considering how easily magic usually came to him he knew it would be impossible for just about anyone else to duplicate, but he had definitely done it. He had cut the casting time down to instant cast which meant he could wave his hand and have a portal appear, go through it and wave his hand again and it would disappear. He even managed to make the casting silent, so it would appear he had just willed them into place. Since starting to play more games he had come to realize that most Wizarding magic was not all that showy and there was a lot to be said for a show of power at times.

He was jarred from his thoughts by his PDA ringing so he got up and realised with some pleasure that it had not taken too much out of him to constantly cast all day. This meant the portals had another success under their belt. The whole idea was to be an easier way to get around that took less magic and by his calculations they should take no more power to get to England from Kansas than it took for him to go from one side of the room to the other.

"Harry Black," Harry said by way of greeting as he hadn't looked at his Caller ID.

"Harry its Walt, just a quick call to let you know I've arranged everything you wanted."

"Thanks Walt that's great news, how much did we get in the end," Harry asked.

"How much did you get you mean; about 40% of the stock for the company which is just under a controlling interest. The company was started by three friends' right out of Salem Academy and floated on the magical exchange last year, at first not many people bought into the company because of the views of the old guard, but people are finally realizing just how revolutionary most of their ideas are."

"Excellent," Harry said with a grin, "This also means that if someone tries a hostile takeover I can stop it right?"

"Just about, though you would need the support of one of the originals to pull off your own takeover."

"Which I have no intention of doing, I want them doing just exactly what they are already doing," Harry assured Walt because the man sounded a little wary.

"You should contact Jade tonight, she will have heard by now," Walt told him with a smile in his voice.

"The money will help them right," Harry said.

"Yep, quite a bit considering everything; they've been running low for a while now I know."

Harry nodded to himself, "Good I like their work. That MagiNet console just saved me about a week's calculations work."

"Create anything interesting," Walt asked.

"Very, but I'm not sharing it, I think only I could really use it right now anyway, it's not a spell for sale though I suppose I should create some at some point. How are your contacts for selling that sort of thing in the Wizarding world, I know you're set up in the Mundane one but…"

"None really, but then you don't need mine you can market stuff through MagiNet if you asked them nicely I'm sure."

"That reminds me I need those computers soon, now that I've got the other one off my plate," Harry said.

"Tomorrow evening alright for you," Walt asked.

"Sounds great, where did you find them?"

"You brought all our old stock we were going to throw out," Walt said sounding smug.

"I'm aghast at your underhandedness," Harry said dryly, "Taking advantage of me to make some extra money."

"Hadeha," Walt said, "You were going to spend more believe me, this way I get to recycle a bit and make some stationery money."

"I'm not sure what that means," Harry admitted, "But I don't care either, as long as they work."

"They work, better than most would actually, we take care of our stock here," Walt told him.

"Seems almost a waste," Harry admitted, "I know I'm going to blow most of them up while I build in the right power levels for a wanded user."

"Must feel strange for you to use a wand for anything," Walt mused.

"Does a bit, now what about the blood contract," Harry asked.

"On its way to you by courier, may even get there by morning I didn't put a rush on but it's got to come from SFC so it could take a while."

"SFC?"

"San Francisco," Walt explained, "Their base of operations."

"I might pop down this weekend and check them out if the paper work is sorted out by then," Harry admitted.

"Good," Walt said that smile back in his voice.

There was a knock at Harry's door which he went to answer as he replied, "You need to stop trying to set me up there are several gorgeous girls here you know."

He opened the door to find Lana Lang standing there, "Talking of, I've got to go," Harry said with an inner smirk.

"Sounds interesting," Walt commented, "Anyway, that's about it I'll talk to Jade at some point to assure her you don't want to take over her company and tell her how to avoid that sort of thing in the meantime. Contact her yourself about the tour okay Harry?"

"Will do Walt, come in Lana – excuse me just a sec nearly done," Harry said the last to his new guest. She smiled prettily at him and stepped into the house as if she knew it, but then she had lived there for years so she actually did.

"Tell Jade I will contact her tomorrow okay, and I'm really not interested in stopping them from doing what they are doing, and have a good night Walt, say hi to Marie for me and tell her to stay out of my love life – such as it is," he said the last with a laugh.

"That's just asking for trouble," Walt laughed back as Harry rung off.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight – Magic**

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* * *

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_Harry's House_

"Hi Lana, sorry about that," Harry said, "Would you like a drink?"

"Urm – yes please; coffee if you have it."

"Do I ever," Harry said with a grin, "I'm addicted since coming to America. Before it was tea or pumpkin juice. It's nice to finally drink an adult drink."

"Pumpkin juice," Lana asked strangely.

"Surprisingly refreshing, but it tastes like crap," Harry filled in walking towards his kitchen which was directly leading on from the back door a nice pleasant breeze coming through it.

He turned in surprise when he realised that Lana had followed him into the room, "Is everything okay Lana?"

"I was mostly curious," she admitted with a sheepish shrug, "I heard you were living in my old house and wanted to check it out."

That was a half truth if ever Harry had heard one, or perhaps a quarter one. He sensed she was curious as to what he had found out about her tattoo as well as being curious about him and what he had done with her old house.

"How do you like your coffee," Harry asked ignoring his senses for a while, which was a good idea around Lana or he would get himself into trouble with a girl that already had a boyfriend. She almost reminded him of Cho Chang in some ways; she was intelligent, very attractive and utterly unobtainable to him personally. This small thought did nothing for his sense of attraction to the woman though and he mentally shook it off. He didn't need to join half the school in lusting over Lana Lang as he was well aware most of them had a crush on the popular girl. Though his pride noted that he doubted most of them warranted a personal visit from her.

"Just black is fine thanks," Lana replied taking a seat at the breakfast bar. He had not had all that much of a chance to change anything from the old layout as yet. He planned to but never seemed to get around to it; the fact he would have to go mundane to do it put him off more than a little as well. Swapping out walls and beams and all the other reconfiguration he wanted to do was easy with magic and would take a day at most, but now he had a visitor he couldn't get away with it either.

"Sugar, honey?"

Lana shot him an odd look, then shook herself a tiny bit and said, "Just one sugar, thank you."

Harry wondered what he had just asked incorrectly and then ignored it, there were bound to be cultural differences even from his old home to this one. Like coffee itself for instance, it never did penetrate magical England all that well but over here it was the standard drink both sides of the line. If Harry never saw another pumpkin it would be too soon he was sure.

"There you go," Harry said handing her the prepared drink. "So," Harry began as he was sipping his own coffee a full fat cappuccino, "I've been doing some research for you."

"Oh," Lana said feigning mild interest while her mind screamed real interest.

"Interesting lady that Countess," Harry commented, "But I prepared a file for you," he said grabbing it from beside his laptop bag and handing it to Lana, "Everything I could find on her through my research sources is in there in hard copy as well as some details on the Language of Rao, which is the name the academics have for the Runic language your tattoo is from. No one knows anything about this Rao other than he is mentioned a few times over the history of the language."

As he talked Harry cast some wandless diagnostic charms on Lana as she began to become engrossed in reading. "Oh I forgot my PDA bear with me," he said and walked out of the room, when he came back he had activated mage sight – a simple spell to see magic that was used almost exclusively by curse breakers for Gringotts and the like. Luckily Bill Weasley was one of his donors and had passed on that particular spell to Harry. It had proven useful on a few raids, but Harry didn't have the natural talent that Bill had for such things. He was missing that as he looked at the highly complicated knot of magic that was all over Lana and centered on her tattoo.

Lana began to turn so Harry turned the Mage sight off and carried on walking into the room, using his almost perfect memory he could analyze the readings later.

Lana shook herself she had felt Harry looking at her for a moment then and when she had turned around she was sure she had seen his eyes glowing emerald green. It was a stunning image and had ignited something in her she didn't like to think about especially since she was probably seeing things. It did give her a very pleasant low down shiver to think about though she had to admit, even if it was only privately. She knew she shouldn't be thinking about such things but lately Jason was being very strange towards her and it was triggering all her danger senses considering some of the disasters she had put up with in her dating life she had grown a set of senses to warn her of danger from a male of the species. Oddly enough the only thing she could sense from Harry was a sense of attraction that she shared and that she was in danger of kissing him.

She shook off those sorts of thoughts and turned back to the surprisingly large amount of paper work he had accumulated for her. Considering her own research had turned up very little it was amazing to her that he had gotten so much.

"I hope you don't mind, by the way, but one of the things I had to do was look up some information on you," Harry said going for honesty, "So I used the school Intranet and looked up your birthday, full name and a few other details like birthplace and stuff."

Lana looked at him questioningly so he continued, "Turns out you're related to the Countess," Harry told her, "Read into that as you will but there is a worrying prophesy that you look to be about to read about ."

Lana turned back to the page and skimmed down until she got to what Harry was talking about and for some reason blanched of color. "Oh god," she breathed a sense of dread coming over her; all her danger senses from a life in Smallville had just gone through the roof.

"I know – ominous isn't it?"

"But, it can't mean anything; can it? Magic doesn't exist does it?"

"From what I understand," Harry began very carefully, "This town has seen its share of weird things, can you honestly say that something doesn't exist without some form of proof? Call it what you will, supernatural forces or a freak of nature but I believe that what some call magic is a force in the universe… Of course now you think I'm a freak don't you."

"No – actually what you say makes a lot of sense, have you seen Chloe's wall of weird yet?"

"No actually, what's that about."

"Articles on some of the weird things that have happened in the town, she blames the meteor shower that killed my parents. Hell she actually has a picture of me in there from Time magazine."

"She does? You were on the cover of time? Started modeling a little early didn't you?"

"I was just a kid and I don't like to think about it," Lana said sounding annoyed.

"Sorry, I have foot in mouth disease," Harry explained looking pained, "Back to the point. I can't say that magic doesn't exist, so the way I see it it's best to be as prepared as possible."

"It's alright I know you meant nothing by it, but what do you mean by being prepared."

"I might be able to lay my hands on some voodoo that they do so well that might help." Harry said carefully knowing he was in real danger of outing himself just by saying that. He wasn't legally allowed to tell Lana that magic did exist unless they got married or she had magic of her own… A light bulb went off over Harry's head; she did have magic of her own, seriously potent magic at that. He looked at her for a long drawn out moment weighing his options.

"I just feel like something bad is going to happen and I have no idea what to do about it." Lana said sounding utterly lost, "I don't know why but I feel like I have a death sentence over my head and no chance of getting out of it."

"I know the feeling," Harry told her his eyes caring.

Lana looked at him with big pleading eyes, "If you can help me Harry - please do. I'm so scared I swear I'd do just about anything at this…"

She was cut off by Harry's hand over her mouth; she looked down at it in shock and wondered what the hell he was doing.

Harry took his hand away from her mouth and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Then he looked at her sharply, "Alright you want to make an oath, make one to me now that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to reveal to you, about me, under pain of death, and/or, loss of magic."

"Why those words," she asked.

"If you want my help, say the words."

Looking confused, she did so. Then Harry looked apologetic, "I'm sorry for that but please realize now that the oath you just made won't let you tell anyone and I mean anyone what I'm about to talk to you about. Your own magic won't let you, it will go out of its way to stop you, do you understand, and if by some chance you still manage it you will die… do I make myself clear?"

Lana nodded now looking annoyed, "What's all this about Harry?"

"Firstly people with magical cores, _**REALLY**_ should not be swearing anything or making oaths they can't get out of," he said sternly.

Harry then smiled at her and levitated her off the chair, her eyes shot open in total shock and she damn near fainted from it. "Magic – well – it does exist and I'm more than a little worried about this tattoo, which is why I talked to you in the first place. I can do magic, about 1% of the population in fact can do magic, and the really strange thing is that I'm willing to bet that you can do magic."

"This is ridiculous, and yet," she said waving at the fact she was still floating off the chair, "Meteor power?" she hazarded.

"Nope, never been here before in my life, as I understand it you needed to be here during the shower to have been affected. I can prove that I know magic in any number of ways," Harry said and lowered her to the floor and conjured a set of lilies for her, "Madam," he said with a grin. They were perfect down to every detail as behooved someone of his capabilities and would last a little longer than an actual cut lily would. He could have gone with a rose but it was a little cliché in his opinion and the choice of lily was obvious to anyone that knew who his mother was.

"They're beautiful," Lana said taking the flowers, "are they real?"

"After a fashion, that's called conjuration it's pretty advanced stuff. You see I'm a little unusual even for a wizard, that's a male witch by the way."

"And I can do this?"

"With training, the thing is I think I know why you haven't been picked up before now and I'm willing to bet that it's because of the Countess. I think you didn't have a magical core before she became linked to you via the tattoo and now you do because she does. I also think if we get rid of her that you'll keep the core but that's just a theory. Personally I can't imagine having magic only to lose it afterwards so we'll do what we can to make sure you keep it."

"Why tell me all this, when it's obviously some sort of secret?"

"I had to tell you to help you. There is something called the statute of secrecy, it means that under our law it is illegal to tell a mundane, that's a normal unmagical person, about magic. There are a few get out clauses though; you see there are people called first generation witches/wizards. If, for instance, you had been born with your core that's what you'd be and obviously you would have to get the proper training, over here it's called a GMD, General Magical Diploma. Now, you slip through the cracks because most first gen's are found at birth then told at around eleven years old when their core stabilizes. I was told at that point myself even though I'm what is known in England as a half blood, meaning my father was a wizard and my mother first generation."

"Because of the Countess I'm what?"

"I would classify you as first generation from a squib line, but that's beside the point."

"What the hell is a squib?"

"Okay, one more then – a squib is a child born into a magical family with no magic of their own, or so little they can't perform spells."

"Right so what does this all mean for me and my situation then?"

"I think I can get her out of you," Harry said shocking Lana into speechlessness.

"Really," Lana asked surprised, "I would have thought this was odd by any standard."

"Really," he assured her, "I have some expertise in this area, please don't ask me how or why I can't tell you that – just trust that I do."

"I'm never this lucky," Lana said sounding a little maudlin.

"This is actually not good luck, there is much that can go wrong here and you also need training or else your core will take matters into its own hands eventually. It's still building power and that scares me."

"Why?"

"Because you are already very powerful, with potential to be more than I would like for someone with no training."

"How do I get training," she asked.

"That's the tricky part," he admitted, "Essentially you might have to disappear for a while."

"Why?"

"Because this training will need to be done in secret first off, because your friends can't know what you're doing, because of a lot of reasons like that. Because most of all if you don't get training you will start to have accidental magic."

"I don't like the sound of that, what is it?"

"It's exactly as it sounds Lana, its magic performed by accident. It normally happens on children with improperly formed cores during their early years when they have low emotional control and is thus linked by most to that. That's not true though, it's actually your core reacting to your lack of training and trying to do things for you. As you train with your magic you gain control over it and thus it obeys your commands rather than your will. At your age it's potentially dangerous because your core is already powerful and mostly formed but untrained."

"Ah," Lana said looking despondent again, "There is the bad luck."

"I'm sorry," he told her, "I've got some contacts though that will be able to get you trained and after the training you'll be able to continue as normal. Despite the fact that it's unusual it's not totally unheard of to miss someone and an accelerated program is available."

"How long would I be gone," Lana asked.

"A year at most," Harry told her.

"How do you know all this," Lana asked, "You obviously went through the normal training method."

"I didn't actually, which is how I know of the other methods available. I was offered various ways of doing it before I picked one, the best one as it turned out. I'd offer you the same but only one man on earth knows how to do it and he's not got the source materials any more, he used them on me. That is really covered by your oath by the way."

"How serious is the oath I took?"

"I kinda tricked you a little I'll admit," Harry told her, "It's totally binding."

"Good," she told him, "I do thank you for your help I really do – why are you helping me?"

Harry paused, he could say several things at this point but the truest was, "Because I want to give something back to the world."

Lana smiled at him her eyes holding a note of something that Harry couldn't quite read without delving into her mind and he wasn't sure he wanted to. "Now how would you like a taste," Harry said.

"Of what?"

"Of what's to come, the fun half of it. It's not all bad news Lana, magic is a _**wondrous**_ thing."

She smiled one of the knock out smiles at him and said, "Alright."

"Come with me," he told her and lead her down into his special basement area.

"This is bigger than I remember," she said curiously.

"That's magic at work," he said with a grin. Then he walked to his wand and picked it up, "You'll get your own one of these shortly but for this it will do. You see every witch or wizard is matched to a wand to perform magic with."

"You didn't use one upstairs," she pointed out.

"With practice you might not have to either, but give that a lot of time. Now take the wand in your main hand, right handed?" she nodded so he said, "That hand then," he absently conjured a feather and placed it on the desk. Then he walked behind her and led her through the movements of the spell he was going to get her to cast, "Swish and flick," he told her, "This is a first year spell and dead easy once you get the movements down."

Lana nodded, "Okay I think I've got it."

"Now, get ready to learn Latin by the way, Wingardium Leviosa, alright? That's the incantation do the movements focus on the feather and say the incantation."

Lana did so and the feather twitched, "Brilliant I wasn't expecting anything for a first attempt," Harry admitted to her, "Did you feel it, that tiny rush?"

Lana looked at him with sparkling eyes, "That was amazing, can I try again?"

"Yes and this time push harder," he told her.

She went through the movements and then said the spell and the feather lifted from the desk. "Bloody fantastic," Harry told her, "Now keep your focus on the feather. I know this doesn't seem that useful but it has surprising uses," he said thinking back to his first year and the troll incident.

"No – it's amazing I love it," Lana said her eyes bright, almost as bright as her smile.

"Magic is amazing I promise you – it's got its dark sides of course, but doesn't everything. You're in for a full year Lana but afterwards you'll have your GMD and then you can learn at your own pace. One thing to remember though, magic and electricity don't work well together so don't levitate your fridge anytime soon unless you want it to die on you."

Lana nodded, leading her feather on a merry dance around the room.

Harry watched her quite surprised.

"What," she asked noticing his expression.

"You have amazing control," he told her, "Perhaps because of the way you got your core or because you're just amazingly clever."

Lana beamed at him but the compliment took her by surprise and the feather fell to the floor. Harry caught it before it landed and levitated it to the desk again, "Go again?"

"Please," Lana said smiling.

"You do that, I have to do some research on exactly what is going to happen when I try to remove the Countess."

"Do you have to leave I don't want to levitate the wrong thing or exploded the feather."

"Tell you what," Harry said and walked to his old school trunk he kept in the room, he opened it up with a wave of his hand and then virtually stuck his head in. After a few moments he came out of the trunk with a book in hand. "First year charms book, have a go at a few of them. I've got enough experience myself to fix anything that goes wrong."

Lana smiled and looked around for some place to read.

Harry noticed and conjured a comfortable chair for her which made her eyes widen.

"Will I be able to do that," she asked.

"One day I'm pretty certain you'll be able to do that and more."

"Will it disappear and dump me on my ass?"

"Not for a day or so I put enough power in just in case," Harry told her.

"Power?"

"Magic, I pushed a little harder as it were so it would last longer. With conjuration it's about knowing the properties of the thing to conjure and then laying on the power. If I wanted I could make that permanent."

Lana looked thoughtful for a moment, "Will I be allowed to protect myself with magic?"

"Actually yes, but they prefer that you don't. Why do you ask?"

"For the last few years I seem to be the focus for several attacks and I've had enough. Lex taught me some self defense but with magic…"

"With magic you can kill with two words Lana, don't ever take magic for granted because she has a foul temper. Hurting people is almost unilaterally dark magic because the intent is to harm. That affects your very soul – I suggest you stay away from it. That said you can protect yourself with some simple stuff, like that Wingardium spell you can levitate an attacker away from you if you wish and that's pure white magic." Harry paused and then said, "Of course by the same token you can use the same spell to kill."

"How," Lana asked surprised to hear that from such a simple spell.

"It's really all about the intent of the caster, and pretty advanced philosophy but if I wanted to kill you I could levitate you a hundred feet in the air and drop the spell. The fall would likely kill you. An overpowered sunlight charm used for tanning could burn you to a cinder while this," Harry cast his fireball charm straight at a golem which exploded, "really only has a few uses and all of them destructive."

Lana's eyes were wide with shock at the destructive power she had just witnessed. "Can you teach me that," she asked with a grin.

Harry shook his head, "I made that spell, only I know it and that is the way it's staying."

She pouted playfully at him but went back to his first year charms book watching the animated wand illustrations with a sense of wonder. "Never lose that," Harry advised her.

"Lose what?"

"That sense of wonder you have on your face right now, never lose that and you'll do okay," he explained to her. "Respect the power of magic and the wonder it causes and you'll walk the line just fine. We're an armed society the Wizarding World, but fights don't break out that often because the average Joe can't duel for love or money and because most of the world just wants to live their lives."

"I'll remember Harry," she promised him seeing how serious he was being with her.

"Good," he said with a smile and went back to the MagiNet Console and started his research.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine – Blur**

**

* * *

**

_Harry's House, Early Next Day_

"Holy shit," Harry said noticing the time on his watch.

Lana looked up blearily, "What?"

"It's 6am," he told her looking surprised.

"Oh god, my boyfriend – I was supposed to meet him last night," Lana said looking panicked.

"You know you can't tell him – right?"

"I don't like keeping secrets from my boyfriend but I made an oath."

"This means about you as well," Harry warned her, "That wasn't covered by the oath just the stuff about me. It's up to you who you tell but the average rule of thumb is not to tell a partner until you're married."

"What do I tell him about staying out all night?"

Harry paused thinking it over, "He's already jealous of me so mentioning me – not such a good idea."

"You know who my boyfriend is," Lana asked looking worried.

Harry smiled to reassure her, "I think I do – not confirmed or anything but like I said with the way he was acting during the whole love potion thing – to me and Clark come to think of it well it was obvious who he was jealous about."

"Oh god, you can't tell anyone."

"I won't," he assured her, "I have no interest in being a rumor monger I assure you I suffered enough from unsubstantiated rumor a fair bit myself in my last school. I'm not about to spread it myself."

"Why? It would make a great article for the Torch," Lana asked looking at him steadily.

"It would," he agreed, then grinned, "But I'm not set on being a reporter or anything like that so I'm not likely to want to make my career on someone I'm trying to help either now am I?"

Lana got up and ran a hand through her hair, "I must look horrible," she commented.

"You really don't," Harry commented under his breath. Unfortunately just loud enough that Lana caught it, he was going to have to work on his sub vocal skills.

"If you want," Harry said after clearing his throat, "Feel free to use my shower I can do some magic on your clothes so they are different – though I warn you I'm not fashion expert."

"You can change my clothing?"

"With practice you can create clothing from scratch Lana," Harry told her amused by the gleam in her eye. "Now go on up you can have first shower."

"I don't want to use all your hot water," she said looking torn she could really do with a hot shower.

"Magic is a wondrous thing," he told her, "I never run out of hot water."

She smiled and then bolted up the stairs, she obviously was aware of where everything was in the house having lived there herself. Harry tried not to think of a naked Lana using his shower and instead did his morning workout, it took a good half an hour and she was going to be at least that long he was sure.

He then finished up as he heard footsteps above his head and walked up to greet her and stopped dead. She was in one of his shirts, and that was it, drinking coffee. "If Coach Teague walked in now he would try to kill me," Harry mumbled to himself, this time so no one heard him. In all honesty he had never wanted a woman as much as he wanted Lana right then and there from the men's shirt to the wet hair she was every bit the enticement to his libido.

"He…" he cleared his throat and tried again, "Hello?"

She turned, totally un-self conscious about her state of undress. Apparently sometime during the night, maybe because this was her old house or perhaps because he was helping her, he had been inducted into the people she trusted and that trust included being in the room with them virtually naked. He really needed to not think about the lack of garments that were likely on under that shirt or he was going to get into trouble.

Despite the fact that his mind was like a steel trap and one of the most organized things in the area his hormones were a mess and the girls in the area, in specific Lana, Lois and Chloe really had a habit of knocking him for six. At the moment of course the main perpetrator of that was Lana but then he had not expected to find her in one of his shirts and very little, if anything, else.

He gave himself a shake and tried to focus, "My shirt?"

"I hope you don't mind I figured you'd be in the master bedroom. I didn't have anything to put on until you do your magic on my other clothes."

Did he, or did he not, tell her he could have done that with her wearing them?

"Right," Harry said walking over to the counter and grabbing himself the strongest coffee he could make. He was tempted to fill the sink with ice water and dunk his head. Very few women made him react like that; he had tried to lock off his hormones after the few disastrous relationships he had partaken in over the years of his schooling.

Lana looked at his back admiring the sight of a sweaty Harry and inwardly crowing at the state she had put him into while trying to remind herself why she was with Jason. It was becoming harder and harder to remember the more time she spent around Harry. It was a doomed relationship, but then again so would anything be with Harry. He obviously had some issues himself with relationships, and she was going to be away for a year soon, very soon. She should come up with something to tell Jason about all that, as well as her other friends. She wondered what she was going to do about her apartment over the Talon. Would Lex keep it for her for when she returned or would she lose it? She loved that place it was one of the favorite places she had lived or stayed in her life.

"Breakfast?" Harry suddenly asked, obviously with more control over himself.

"Actually if it's alright could you do my clothes, I should really get back – I think I know what I'm going to tell him now."

"Right, bear with me." Harry said and looked around, "Where are they?"

"Your bedroom," she said.

Harry flushed, she had been naked in his room – he so didn't need that image in his head right at that moment. "Right," he said and made his way there to find that she had laid out her clothing on his bed.

He tried to think of the clothing he had seen her wear and then waved his hand, "Right – that's not going to work." He said as some provocative clothing appeared. "Bloody perv, here we go again," he said and waved his hand and some top quality clothing that she would actually be seen dead in appeared. "Thank god," he mumbled. Then he turned and left his room and walked back down stairs, "It's ready," he told her.

She left with a smile and gulp of her coffee, obviously in a rush to get back to Jason which Harry didn't like all that much. In his humble opinion the guy was a dick, but that was mostly because he was jealous and he was honest enough with himself to admit that.

She reappeared moments later and looked at him steadily, "These are amazing is this silk?"

"I dunno," he admitted with a shrug, "I wasn't really thinking about it when I cast just thought about the sort of things you wore and the colors and went with it. I put in enough power that it won't fade for a day or two. I'd put them in your closet for a while so no one notices and you're all set."

"Shame they can't stick around they are way better than the originals."

Harry waved his hand and she was encased in power for a moment, "There ya go," he said turning back to his coffee.

"Urh – you didn't need me to take them off?"

Harry's ear's went pink, "Urh – no, but by time I could tell you that it was too late."

Lana looked a little pink herself but then shrugged it off, "Right thanks Harry," she said leaning in and kissing his cheek gently before walking away and out the front door.

Harry swallowed and then smiled slightly to himself. Then he slapped himself in the fore head, "Lana!" he called out chasing after her.

She turned as she approached her car, "Yes Harry?"

"We can do the spell tonight if you can get away, I forgot to tell you."

Lana smiled at him, "That'd be great thanks Harry." She said getting into her car, "Be over about – 8pm?"

"Sure," Harry said standing in his drive way and watching her drive away. Then he let out a long breath and walked to his porch and gently banged his head into the support strut on the way to the front door. "Damn it Harry get a grip," he told himself.

_The Torch, Later_

"Chloe," Harry called out as he walked in the door of the school newspaper.

Chloe looked up from under her desk, "Harry?"

Harry tilted his head with a quizzical expression on his face, "Whatcha doing down there?"

"Trying to fix this stupid wiring, I got caught up in it earlier," she said with one of her amazing smiles.

"Oh – right I can do that for you," Harry said walking up and dropping down onto the floor beside her on his knees.

Lois walked in the room, "Chlo – I… hello"

Harry looked at Chloe and she looked back and they both blushed before Harry broke the tension by laughing and dropped under the desk.

Lois raised an eyebrow wondering what was going on since her cousin was wearing a skirt that day but shook it off; Harry was hardly likely to be doing anything like that while she was in the room. "I got my article."

"Oh so do I," Harry said from under the desk, muffled slightly.

"Say – why is English under the desk," Lois asked.

"He's fixing me up," Chloe said then blushed, "My wires – he's fixing my wires."

"Riiight," Lois said drawing out the word and handing over her article about the potions cheerleaders, "The expose of the school about our friendly chemistry cheerleaders."

"Oh bugger," Harry noted from under the desk.

"Something to add Harry," Chloe said.

"No – just forgot to check something last night." He replied, "Got a cable tie up there?"

"Sure, here," Chloe said passing him a few.

"Mine is done about the football thing you wanted," he said pointing a hand towards his laptop bag he had left beside Chloe.

Chloe helped herself to the article and the disk that went with it and then caught sight of the laptop in the bag, "That's not a brand make."

"Custom made," Harry said coming out from under the desk.

"Huh," Chloe said reading both articles with a quick scan. "Oh Lo, learn to spell already."

"That's what you're for – editor."

"Not bad Harry, some polish needed but I think you both get the job."

"Cool," Harry said with a smile. "All done by the way," he said with a wave at the underside of the table.

Chloe pushed back and looked under the desk, "Not bad – know much I.T."

"I.T.?"

"Technology – Computers?"

"Oh – sorry, yeah of course I do." Harry said, "Not that sorting out cables takes much technology it's really more like knitting."

Lois laughed, "You can knit?"

"To my eternal shame I can," Harry said, "I had a very boring Christmas at a friend's and she offered to teach me so I said yes."

"Anyway Harry this is good like I said but I'm surprised it's quite complimentary after the trouble you had with the football team…" she trailed off her meaning clear.

Lois looked innocent as Harry glared at her, "That was nothing I couldn't handle and it really wasn't their fault."

"Well everyone is trying to forget it I think. Coach Teague has forgiven Clark and he's not getting pummeled every practice anymore, though I did hear him complaining about you still." Lois said.

'If only he knew that I saw his girl in nothing but a shirt,' Harry thought to himself a smug smile appearing on his face.

"I don't like the look of that smile, what did you do?" Chloe asked curiously watching his face.

"Me – nothing," Harry said innocently. "Though, for his sake he should really stop annoying me by proxy and come to me himself."

"Annoying, I heard that Bret, Steve and Jake were found knocked out in a classroom one day and the next it happened to Bret again – three of the biggest on the team – how did you manage that again by the way?"

"I had a violent upbringing," Harry said in a tone that it was clear it was all he was going to say on the matter.

"I would have had trouble with that many," Lois admitted grudgingly.

Harry shrugged, it was obvious that Lois didn't know when to let go – so he would go the silent route instead. Chloe had already moved on mentally, but he had a feeling that it wasn't far from her mind either. Her eyes were moving over his article again, "No mention of that here. I notice you've written it as an outsider coming into the world of Highschool football and your experience and view on it – nice angle that by the way, but no mention of being attacked."

"It wasn't their fault, really, it wasn't and I don't know who I checked out that annoyed the coach but he wasn't really in his right mind either," Harry told her, "Why be making waves on this when it was the cheerleaders fault anyway."

"Can I trust that you will make waves if you see the need though," Chloe said looking slightly doubtful about her decision now.

"Oh hell yeah, that sounds like fun," Harry said with a charming smile.

Lois rolled her eyes, "That sounds more like what Chloe is looking for."

"I figure with Lois' article people will see why I omitted any of the rumors that may be going around," Harry said, "Do I still have my position?"

"Yes, as long as you're being straight with me," Chloe told him. "If you know anything else news worthy you had better tell me."

Harry smiled; Lana's private life wasn't newsworthy in his opinion so he could reply with total honesty, "Of course."

"Good," Chloe said looking at him seriously.

"Can I ask about an omission though," Harry asked, "I suspect you missed it on the tour."

"Oh what's that," Chloe asked, her eyes laughing at his jocular tone.

"What's this I hear about a Wall of Weird?"

Chloe looked surprised, "Where'd you hear about that," she asked.

"I have sources that must be protected," was Harry's glib reply.

"Uh huh, why the interest," Chloe asked.

"Journalistic curiosity," Harry replied making Lois laugh.

"You're as much of a journalist as I am," she commented.

Harry smirked but didn't deign to reply.

"Come on, I took this down once and then put it back up," Chloe admitted. Walking to a back room and opening the door, Lois crowded in behind them and then Chloe turned the light on.

The walls were covered with articles, some from the torch, some from other sources and right there in the middle was the cover of Time Magazine. It was gut wrenching to see Lana looking like that, to see any child looking like that knowing that their parent had just been ripped away. Harry walked from one end to the other his almost miraculous memory recording the details of each article as he went. He remained silent all the way through until he reached the end and turned back to Chloe with a serious look in his eye.

"What's going on with this town," he asked. He had come from a world full of magic and this wall said the town was almost as mysterious and he had come for some peace of mind and relaxation. There was no way he was going to get that if the articles were anything to go by. Some of them were unspeakably weird while others were just strange and that was going by a man who had fought a basilisk and a man called Voldemort who looked like a snake in a graveyard where he had just been resurrected.

Chloe was surprised by the harshness of his tone, "What's wrong?"

Harry waved her off, "It's not you – it's this," he said waiving at the wall, "I came here for peace and quiet to get away from the madness of my life. But it appears that I'm destined to be around the bizarre all my life."

"Remind me to look him up," Chloe said in a near silent aside to Lois who nodded as Harry ranted up and down the room.

"I've seen some weird shit in my lifetime and now this – Merlin on a bike." Harry said then his shoulders sagged and he thought over the night before with Lana and all that had happened there and what he was going to do later that night. It occurred to him that he was being childish and throwing his toys out of his pram about this. He had the power to help these people, this town on the whole and he wondered about Clark when he thought that. Did Clark feel the same way, and if so why? "Ignore me ladies," he said finally, "I'm being a prat."

"Sounds nasty is there a cream for that," Lois snarked.

Harry shot her a smile, "Not last I heard but here's hoping."

"Other than Lana, I've never seen someone so angry about this wall," Chloe told him.

"I'm not angry – not really – more shocked and slightly in awe of the strangeness of the universe," Harry told her, "But not angry as such."

"Well – just remember – you asked to see it," Chloe said with another one of her smiles.

Harry smiled back, "That I did – I was always a glutton for punishment. Come on It's coming up on the end of school and as I understand it the coffee shop is finally open."

"I can't I came with Clark today," Lois told him.

"You can come with me, I'll drop you back afterwards," Harry said.

"In your car," Lois said with a gleam in her eyes.

"That's my usual method of movement other than walking."

"Can I drive," she asked.

Chloe made a small negative movement of her head out of sight of Lois, but Harry didn't need to be told twice.

"Nice try Lois, but I'm really not insured for that."

"Damn," she pouted.

_The Talon_

Harry walked over to the table with several cups of coffee on a tray for his guests Chloe and Lois. Both of whom were as addicted to coffee as he was albeit with different coffee's. "I didn't know Mrs. Kent worked here," Harry said as he put down the tray.

"She's the manager," Lois said by way of an explanation, "They like them to turn up, I understand."

"Hmm," Harry said ignoring the jibe and enjoying a sip of coffee. Just then Clark walked in with a much shorter teen and looked around. He spotted them and led the teen over to them.

"Hey guys – this is Bart." He said introducing Bart to the entire table.

Bart seemed to be fixed on Chloe and a smile was appearing on his face. Harry then watched with great amusement as Bart proceeded to flirt with Chloe virtually ignoring Lois and Harry to do so. Then he frowned as he pulled an impressive magic trick or so he said.

"Meh," Lois said with a smirk, "Prefer Roses myself."

Bart ignored her but without even thinking about it Harry's hand dropped under the table and came back up with a single – perfect – red rose, "Here you go gorgeous." Harry didn't notice Lois' surprised reaction as he was mentally reviewing what he had just seen with Bart. The guy was no Wizard; he could sense that almost for sure just as he had with Lana. It wasn't a common ability but given how powerful he was naturally he was able to sense others of his kind quite easily. He wasn't worried about being detected though as he kept that side of himself so low it was undetectable by even Dumbledore himself. It was possible the guy had pulled the same trick of course but it was unlikely. Then there were the snippets of conversation to consider that he had heard when the two had walked in. He had not noticed at the time but with his occlumency he was able to mentally rewind and search through his sense memories and replay them.

If Bart was to be believed they had just been in Miami – with Clark. Harry wasn't good at finding his way around but he knew enough to know it wasn't easy to get to from Kansas and took several flights by all likelihood.

"Hey," Lois said punching him in the arm surprisingly hard.

"Okay – OW," Harry said tuning back in and looking at her, "What was that for?"

"You were obviously checking out someone again and after you just gave me a rose too," she sniffed.

Harry looked at her like she was crazy, which he suspected might not be too far off the mark.

"How'd you pull that off anyway?" Bart asked from across the table.

Harry smiled and shot his own words back at the younger guy, "Magic."

Chloe laughed into her coffee and Lois smirked while Bart looked steadily at Harry for a moment. "I hear that sweet car outside is yours – how fast is she?"

"Only about 163 mph-ish," Harry told him, "I've never had the occasion to take her that fast though."

"Right," Bart said eloquently. "Anyway guys – smell you later."

Harry watched him go with Clark on his tail and then his eyes widened as the guy blurred out of sight leaving Clark standing there looking annoyed. Before Clark darted a look around and did the same thing.

"Right," Harry said now fully interested in what was going on in the town. If not for his extremely amped up reflexes he was fairly sure he would not even have seen that much. Thanks to magic he was almost super human fast, but there was no way he was _**THAT**_ fast.

"You okay there, or checking out more cheerleaders," Lois snarked at him.

"Why would I do that when I'm in the company of two of the best looking women in the school," Harry shot back before he could stop his mouth from working.

Lois looked shocked for a moment before smirking and Chloe was blushing lightly which wasn't a bad look on her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten – Sunder**

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_Harry's House, 7pm_

Harry was sitting back in his living room unwinding with a bottle of butter beer he had picked up when he had picked up his alchemy set from New York. It was ice cold which was the perfect way to have it during the summer months, though it was just as nice slightly warm in the winter.

Lana was due over at eight if she was able to get away from Jason. He had prepared his basement as much as he was able to perform the spell. He would have to use his wand for the casting as it took a lot of power and a fair bit of accuracy to pull off and he didn't want to risk anything going wrong by using wandless casting.

Just then the door was knocked and he got to his front door to find Jason the other side of the door.

Harry stepped back and let the man come in without a specific invite, "Hi there," Harry said his tone cool but not too unfriendly.

"Urm – Harry right?" the good looking man said his tone serious but slightly unsure.

"That's right and you're Coach Teague," Harry said.

"Look, Lana tells me you know about us."

"I do," Harry said.

"She doesn't think you're going to say anything," Jason told him then looked Harry full in the eyes. Harry took a moment to have a peek inside the guys head and didn't much like what he saw there. He was definitely up to something and was cautious enough that he wasn't thinking about it directly at that moment. He had a tiny bit of magic of his own which was confusing Harry's reading slightly but not enough to throw him off the trail totally. He was doing something for his mother, something that included Lana and wasn't good. "I do," Jason said his tone hard. "I've seen the way you look at her; I think you're just waiting for a chance to try to put me out of the picture."

Harry looked at the man steadily, with the sort of confidence that comes from fighting for your life and winning. It was wearing away at the older man's confidence somewhat. Harry knew he had come expecting to find the common hormonal male and expecting to deal with him on that footing. Harry was hormonal especially when it came to Lana of late, but that didn't mean he acted like it. "What makes you think I would do that? Ultimately I would just be hurting Lana."

"Jealousy is like that," Jason said.

"You think I'm jealous of you?"

"It's obvious," the Assistant Coach said his confidence waning as Harry stared him down easily.

This was a man pandered to by his mother for years with a lot of money while Harry had killed a 60 foot snake when he was twelve years old and lived to tell the tale. There was no competition even with the age difference. "I won't do anything to harm Lana," Harry said, "And you had better not either."

Okay so apparently his hormones weren't totally under wraps Harry had to admit.

"I don't want to hurt Lana either," Jason said, "Which is why I've got my eye on you. I know about the tattoo and that you're doing some research for her. I doubt you'll find anything we haven't."

Apparently he wasn't totally up to date with his information, and he obviously had no idea that Lana had been at Harry's all night the night before either. "You would be surprised at the resources I can call upon I think," Harry said a smile that would have made the aforementioned basilisk shit itself and run away on his face.

"I doubt it, I know who you are - I know where you came from and I know you have some small amount of money to your name; don't think that will affect Lana."

Harry pushed into Teague's mind and checked what the man was talking about. He knew Harry's false back story thank god, the one that was made up for him before coming to America, he did know rather a lot of details that weren't public knowledge though and Harry sensed that information had come from his mother Genevieve Teague. Basically he knew nothing that could hurt Harry – or now Lana – at all and was mostly bluster. So Harry kept his cool other than lifting an eyebrow to show some small surprise. The amusing thing was that Teague didn't seem to know just what league Harry was playing in when it came to money. Harry was glad of that and made a mental note to thank Walt for covering up that information for him.

Harry was also going to look up the Teague name in detail as soon as he could.

"I think you understand me," Teague said feeling that he had gotten his message across. The Assistant Coach then turned and left Harry's company and walked to his car before driving off giving Harry no chance to reply. Not that Harry had anything in particular to say he just hoped that Lana was still due to turn up. That Teague wasn't going to pull the controlling boyfriend act and ruin their plans that evening. It was important for Lana to be free of her possession before he got her training.

He whiled away the next hour or so playing his computer game and felt much more relaxed when he heard the call from his front door. He smiled when he spotted Lana still in her transfigured clothing and quickly opened the door for her. He toyed with the idea of telling her about his earlier visit but decided that she didn't want to know that her boyfriend was a bit of an arse if she didn't already.

"Hey there," he said, "Drink?"

"Is that always the first thing you ask," Lana said with a smile as she walked into the kitchen behind Harry.

"Tell you what, say yes and let me chose for you…" Harry said ignoring the playful jibe.

"Okay then yes please," Lana said sitting at the counter and blinking back some tiredness. "It's strange I'm tired but not as tired as I should be I think."

"That's the magic," Harry told her, "In fact before we get going I'll get you back up to full capacity again," he said disappearing from the room for a moment and coming back with a stopered bottle, "This is pepper-up potion." He said by way of explanation, "Have this before your other drink."

Lana looked at the stone wrought bottle then unstopered it and sniffed, "Doesn't smell that nice."

"No, but for someone with a magical core it's a hundred times better than a strong black coffee."

Lana just nodded, put the bottle to her lips and swigged. Steam poured out of her ears for a moment and her eyes widened in shock and pleasure, "Wow," she said, "I feel totally awake now more so than I did yesterday when I got out of bed."

"Its amazing stuff and it'll help tonight," Harry said reaching for the bottle, then taking a swig himself.

Lana laughed, "Did I look like that when I took it – the steam and everything."

"Yep, and this isn't the worst. Sometime I'll give you some Firewhiskey makes you breath fire when you burp."

Lana laughed again, "This is amazing it's like a new world to explore."

"It _**IS**_ a new world to explore," he told her. "The magical world has been mostly separate from the mundane one since the time of Merlin."

"Merlin is _**REAL**_?"

"Oh yes, and so are lots of things, like Dragons for instance," Harry said enjoying seeing his world through her eyes for a while.

"Real dragons, as in fire breathing dragons?"

"Yep, not sure what sorts you get out here in America if any but yes there were several types back in England and some in Europe as well. I personally had to face one once and that was no fun I can tell you."

"Why," Lana asked.

Harry made a face, "I can't tell you that without making up a story to fit the details."

"There's a lot more to you than meets the eye even now isn't there?"

"'Fraid so," Harry admitted easily enough. "Now – we need to get ready; this is going to take most of the night as it is."

"It is," she asked, surprised. "Everything I've seen so far seems so instantly there, you know, I'm surprised it's not all like that. You even have a wakeup call in a bottle."

"Potions can do a lot, but some take hours to brew, months even for the more complex ones. Or they have to be done during certain phases of the moon and the like. I'm not a huge fan of potions actually, I was rather put of the topic by my old teacher, luckily I found a way around him in the end to pick up the knowledge – for instance I brewed that Pepper-up you just took."

"Wow, can you make it taste better?"

"No – unfortunately not," Harry said with a laugh, "Come on, I've got everything set up downstairs."

Lana followed him down into the enlarged basement to a room that looked like it had been built especially for a ritual. Chalk marks were all over the place along with some marks in a liquid that Lana didn't want to think about too closely then she realised morally she had to ask, "Urh Harry – those marks."

"Blood," Harry said almost pleased she had asked.

"Whose?"

"Mine – don't worry no nastiness to this spell other than losing a few pints of blood."

Lana looked at him closely, "You seem the right color," she asked.

"Blood replenishing potion," Harry replied then looked at her, "There's a robe at the end I'll leave the room can you put it on – sorry – but nothing on underneath."

Lana blushed slightly then nodded looking at the plain white article in question. It was thick enough not to be embarrassing so she had no real problems with it; it was just the thought of no underwear that was giving her some problems.

"I have to wear one too and I've done this before so there's no need to be embarrassed."

"Before," she asked curiously, "Why, is this common place."

"Hardly but I can't tell you who or how remember."

"One day I will get all your secrets out of you Harry," she vowed with a smile.

"I hope not," he commented as he walked out of the room causing her to smile then close the door and quickly get changed. A knock at the door sometime later alerted her to the fact that Harry wanted to come back in the room so she opened it and let him in.

"Your clothes?" he asked, "We need to get anything synthetic out of the room before we start."

Lana nodded and went to pick up the pile she had made of her clothing and passed it to Harry. He disappeared for a moment and then reappeared sans the pile.

"Ready," he asked looking set into his actions.

"I am. What is going to happen?"

"Basically I have to cast some spells over you while you stand in that ritual circle over there. It's a good night to do this with the moon full which will add power to the ritual. It's some pretty hefty blood magic so I'm going to be pretty out of it for the next few days, but all things equal you will be free of the Countess afterwards. Don't be afraid of anything that happens while I'm casting, some fairly impressive visual effects are going to be happening around you but do not step outside of the circle. I'm one of two people in England that can even cast this ritual so you're in safe hands I promise."

Lana nodded and smiled bravely at him. "Now step into that circle on the right without scuffing the marks." He told her while pulled his wand out of his sleeve.

Lana did as she was asked carefully stepping over the chalk marks and standing in the direct center of the circle. Beside her there was another circle with even more lines around it.

"Now what's going to happen is this. First I get the spirit or soul fragment out of you; it will go in the second circle. Probably look like a film ghost so don't freak out. Then I have to exorcise the spirit into the afterlife, which is when my casting will switch to Egyptian so don't worry about the language changes. Then when that is done I'll ward you against a revisit and put a temporary bind on your core, so it doesn't try to escape or fluctuate too badly, that I'll remove with a simple spell in a couple of days."

"Right," Lana said with a firm nod.

"Just breath, stand comfortably and relax, in that circle nothing can hurt you; do you understand that you must stay in the circle, even if I'm in trouble."

Lana frowned suddenly, "Why would you be in trouble?"

"Lana – the Countess might not want to go, but don't worry I'm also well protected and able to look after myself."

"Right," she said sounding less sure.

"And we begin," Harry said raising his wand like he was about to conduct an orchestra. It started to weave patterns in the air even before he began to speak in a low tone that sounded quite ominous. The air filled with the electric tingle of power as he let his magic come to the surface and he began to glow dimly.

Lana watched entranced at the play of his wand movements and the sheer power flowing off him in waves. The words were well – Latin to her, but more than that it was the sense of purpose coming from him that made her relax somewhat. She settled in for a long wait and watched entranced as he continued to cast in one seemingly single breath outwards his rhyming never ending and continuously weaving magic all around the room. The runes around her lit up and glowed under their own power and that shocked her for a moment. She knew that they were chalk but there they were glowing as if made from some alien material that glowed in the dark like a child's toy. It was an impressive effect and Lana suspected that it was just the start of the show. Her long hair began to wave in unseen and largely unfelt breeze that moved it without impediment.

The blood on the walls suddenly caused a red pulse of light to fill the area which made Lana shade her eyes against it as it was so bright and then she felt a strange tingle go up her spine. The tingle continued for what seemed like a very long time as the runes and lines pulsed with power all the while Harry's constant incantation filled her ears. Then something shot out of her after what appeared to be an even longer time sending her to her knees in shock.

The purple presence that had left her then took form in the second circle and flowed upwards into a vague female form. Then before Lana's shocked eyes it seemed to fill in with color as Harry cast and the power poured around the room. Suddenly she was looking at a duplicate of herself from the unusually colored brown eyes to the white robe and bare feet. This was nothing like Harry had predicted would happen the other form was solid and not at all ghost like.

Lana looked over at Harry to see that he was still casting but had a large frown on his face that didn't bode well. Then suddenly he switched languages as the other her walked to the very edge of the circle and ran her hand over what appeared to be a bubble like shield that encased her. The other her, who Lana assumed had to be the Countess then smiled in a way that Lana herself would never smile and ran a hand over the shield with purple light on her hand. The two lights met and caused actual sparks to appear and for Harry's voice to warble a little as the backlash hit him.

Apparently the countess was quickly bored of that game and took her hand away from the wall of light causing it to flicker and die away, then she turned to Harry incanted something in Latin and shot a spell at him. Harry's wand hand didn't pause but his other hand came up and deflected the spell away from him with a negligent wave.

The Countess actually looked pleased at this reaction and folded her arms under her pert breasts and watched Harry as he cast. "It won't work," she said after a moment. Her accent was French but her English was perfect.

Harry just frowned at her and continued to cast. This continued for a long time as the Countess continued to inspect Harry from her circle and Lana inspected the Countess from her own circle.

To Lana it was the most surreal experience of her life to date. There was a carbon copy of her looking at Harry like he was a side of meat and she was starving while perfectly content to let Harry finish casting. Harry had said that the Countess might not want to leave but this was total indifference and that made no sense to Lana at all. It was almost as if she knew Harry was going to fail in what he was doing. It appeared that she also knew exactly what Harry was up to as well. So the unconcern worried Lana slightly. Perhaps the Countess had anticipated this move and had already protected herself from it? That seemed likely from what she had read on the woman from Harry's file.

"Right – what the hell," Harry said suddenly, so suddenly that he startled Lana as he let his wand arm drop, "Why are you still around and looking like that?"

He was obviously talking to the witch and not her so Lana stayed quiet.

"You are clever sorcerer but not clever enough. It wasn't simple possession that you were dealing with."

"It wasn't a horcrux either," Harry pointed out.

"That's too dark even for me, besides why bother when there are other methods available." The Countess said with a feral smile on her face. Though she looked impressed that Harry knew what a horcrux was – whatever that was Lana had no idea.

"That's almost good to hear," Harry said after a moment, "Since I currently have no idea how to get rid of you."

"Let me go and I shall reward you greatly – you are most handsome…"

Her meaning was quite obvious to Lana and Harry both. "Hey," Lana said her ire flashing.

The Countess finally deigned to turn and look at Lana and what she saw she was apparently not impressed by in the least.

"Can you not use my body to bribe my friend?" Lana said feeling slightly foolish; besides if any body was going to be used with Harry it was going to be her actual body with her in it to enjoy herself, though she was wishing she hadn't thought that and from the look in the Countess' eyes she had read it right off the top of Lana's head.

The Countess dismissed Lana with a flick of her hair and turned back to Harry, "To be rid of me now you would have to kill me. You see you have done what few have done before you – you have brought the dead back to life, with a little help from beyond the grave of course."

"Great, I can add necromancy to my long list of other accomplishments," Harry said dryly. "And if I remember correctly you should be calling me Magister about now," he said with a self mocking tone. "God I hope no one back home hears about this it'll have them rolling in the bloody aisles I'm sure."

"What's so funny," Lana asked.

"I was once told a little about necromancy by an – old enemy and he said there was one thing he had never pulled off on anyone, even himself, because of a ritual he used to stop death. Now I've gone and done it, people will laugh because they always said I could surpass him without trying," Harry said running a tired hand down his face. It was obvious the casting had really taken it out of him.

"I still don't see what's so funny," Lana said looking annoyed and more than a little freaked out.

Harry lazily cast his wand at the Countess and several diagnostic spells appeared over her, "Amazing, you're a devious bitch aren't you?"

"Thank you," The Countess said, "But I usually just answer to Isobel."

Harry chuffed a laugh, "I'd even like you had it not been for the fact that you were trying to take over my friend."

"It's not like I chose her in particular I just required someone of my line and she was the first that fit the bill in a long time."

"Lana – the good news is you're free from the possible/actual possession. The bad news is that now she's real and out of you I have no idea what to do with her." Harry said while lazily casting some spells over Lana, "More good news your core is intact." He walked back to Isobel and cast another spell at her, "So is hers, which is annoyingly difficult."

"Why Harry," Lana asked on one hand she was pleased that she was still able to do magic on the other she was totally freaking out. She had her very own clone and worse she was a fully trained witch of some power apparently according to the books Harry had researched for her.

Harry spread his hands in supplication, "I don't know what to do with her."

"Let me go then," Isobel said.

"You're a borderline dark witch I'd have to be insane to do that," Harry said with a smirk, "I'm just not that insane."

"I'll reward you greatly," Isobel said seductively trying that angle again.

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm not totally hormone led," he noted.

Isobel frowned, people in this century were much harder to entice than she had imagined.

"Is that your idea of being a strong woman," Lana asked, "Using sex to get what you want?"

Isobel frowned prettily and then her lip curled into a smirk as she looked at Harry and then back at Lana but she remained silent.

"Okay – think Harry think," Harry said walking back and forth.

"Can you let me out Harry," she asked.

"No, unfortunately not until I decide what to do with Isobel here or you both go free."

"Right – fantastic," Lana grumped.

"Why do anything with me, I mean neither of you any harm. I have my own mission in life that I can now take up again."

"We know about the prophesy and I don't particularly want you to kill Jason," Lana said.

Isobel narrowed her eyes at Lana, causing Harry to wave a hand and shock Isobel away from eye contact, "Quit that," he said firmly.

"What was she doing?"

"Legimency – the art of reading minds"

Lana looked worried, "Can you do that."

"Not without just cause," Harry said to placate her worries, though he didn't realised just why she was worried.

"This century is no fun already," Isobel said with a sigh.

"I'm all for having fun, but you're going to have to put a curb on some of your proclivities when I let you out of there. This isn't 1604 there are strict rules in place and if you even show signs of going dark I'll put you down myself."

"As if," Isobel said with a sneer.

Harry's magic leapt out around him in a visible aura as he stared down the Countess, hers did the same and there was the smell of burnt tin in the air. Harry's managed to get even more powerful and then Isobel finally backed down looking a little surprised. "I'm the most powerful wizard of my age Isobel don't fool around with me."

"I believe you," she commented wryly, standing back away from the circle's wall.

Harry waved his wand around and put up some extra wards around the room and then finally magically locked his door and conjured some furniture, and then with a final wave of his wand dropped the wards over the ritual circles. Isobel felt them come down immediately then tried to escape to no avail. Even Lana felt something that had been niggling on the edge of her consciousness fade away.

"Let's talk," Harry said.

* * *

_**AN**: I wasn't going to post this so soon after the other batch but people have been so wonderful in reviewing that I just had to do it. I can't promise another fast update though this is currently everything I have written for this particular story, but I will get to work on this and Harry Who as they are both very popular stories here. I just have to come up with a way of working on several stories at the same time without bleed over lol. So thank you once again for the wonderful reviews, you know who you are!_


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